A US appeals court has ruled against President Donald Trump's administration in a major voting dispute ahead of the midterm elections, denying a request to block California from counting mail ballots from people on a list of more than 20,000 registered voters the federal government alleges are likely noncitizens.
The 2-1 decision by the San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday marked the latest setback in Trump's efforts to assert a greater federal role in overseeing elections in the run-up to the November 3 midterms in which his fellow Republicans are fighting to retain control of Congress.
The majority decision said the Justice Department failed to give a lower-court judge an adequate opportunity to consider the case, so it would be premature for the appeals court to weigh in. The lower court judge has scheduled a hearing on Tuesday in the case.
Circuit Judge Gabriel Sanchez, one of the two judges in the majority, wrote in a concurring opinion that the federal government "asks the federal court to dictate to a state legislature a matter squarely within the state's traditional domain, upending the state's policies in this regard and inviting disorder and confusion for voters and election officials alike."
The California lawsuit was the first time the Trump administration sought to prevent a state from counting votes, though it did not indicate how many of the 20,000 people on its list had actually submitted a mail ballot.
Justice Department officials said on October 19 that the 20,000 people included 28 who had been criminally charged with illegally voting.
California is the most populous US state and a Democratic stronghold. It has more seats in the House of Representatives — 52 — than any other state.
'Reckless political stunt'
Trump has long argued that California's immigration policies have facilitated voter fraud.
The Justice Department filed its lawsuit on October 15 in federal court in Los Angeles.
The lawsuit asked a federal judge to order California to separate any ballots it received from people on the administration's list from the rest of the ballots and not count them until it verified that the people who cast them were citizens.
The Justice Department filed an emergency motion with the 9th Circuit to expedite the case.
California says the state's safeguards against noncitizen voting are robust, and asserted in a court filing that the Justice Department's assertions relied on "suspect data."
"At best, this litigation is a reckless political stunt," lawyers for California Secretary of State Shirley Weber said in an October 20 court filing. "At worst, it threatens to disenfranchise thousands of Californians this election."
The Justice Department has told election officials in all 50 states that they could face criminal prosecution if they knowingly allowed noncitizens to remain on their rolls or cast ballots. It has sued 30 states and Washington, DC, for refusing to provide complete voter rolls including voters' sensitive personal data, but has lost 26 of those cases so far without winning one.
"Today's ruling is a positive development and a welcome speed bump to Trump's disgusting attacks on the Constitution and our country's democracy," said California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat.
