Supreme Court: DOJ seeks emergency review of California ballot dispute

The Department of Justice filed a notice on Monday seeking injunctive relief from the U.S. Supreme Court regarding California’s voter registration rolls. This move occurs 24 hours before Election Day and marks the latest escalation in a federal challenge to state election administration. The department argues that the state should pause processing ballots for individuals it identifies as likely noncitizens.

The Justice Department claims it has identified 20,000 likely noncitizens on California’s voter roll. It contends that ballots from these voters should not be counted until their citizenship is verified. The department’s request follows a series of legal defeats in lower federal courts. Judge David Carter, a Clinton appointee, recently described the federal actions as a broad, ongoing pattern of attempted election interference. A divided panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals subsequently rejected the department’s emergency request to stop processing these ballots.

In a Friday decision, Judges Mark Bennett and Gabriel Sanchez of the 9th Circuit sided with California and Los Angeles County. They wrote that there is a material risk that granting the United States its requested relief would result in disenfranchisement and could jeopardize the County’s entire election. The majority opinion cited the Purcell principle, a legal precedent that discourages changing election rules on the eve of an election. The judges also noted that the Constitution grants states authority to run elections and that the National Voter Registration Act bars states from systematically removing ineligible voters within 90 days of a federal election. Judge Patrick Bumatay, the panel’s third member, dissented.

Local data challenges the scale of the federal claim. County election officials found that many individuals on the Justice Department’s list did not have active voter registrations and were not mailed ballots. On the weekend, data scientists at the University of California Los Angeles Voting Rights Project were granted court-ordered access to the list in a separate lawsuit. Their analysis determined that 42% of the names on the list do not appear on California’s current voter roll. The team also identified naturalized citizens among those flagged by the federal government.

The dispute has intensified tensions between federal and state officials. In recent weeks, the Justice Department sent subpoenas to California election officials and warned of potential criminal prosecution for allowing ineligible voters to cast ballots. A federal judge in San Francisco issued a temporary restraining order late Friday. That order bars the Trump administration from threatening, intimidating, or coercing election officials to stop processing ballots from registered voters the government alleges are ineligible. The federal government has appealed that restraining order.

The Supreme Court has not yet indicated whether it will take up the case or how quickly it might rule. The Justice Department’s appeal adds another layer to the ongoing legal battle over the administration of the Tuesday election.