Judge blocks DOJ effort to pause California ballot counting for 20,000 alleged noncitizens

A federal judge in Los Angeles denied the Justice Department’s request to stop California from counting mail ballots from 20,000 alleged noncitizen voters. The decision, issued late Wednesday night, leaves the state’s election process intact while the legal dispute moves to the appeals court.

U.S. District Judge David Carter argued that freezing the counting process now would create chaos. He noted that the election is already underway and that pausing operations would chill the confidence of both election workers and citizens. Carter stated that delaying the count would effectively discount the votes of United States citizens while unproven allegations are investigated.

The Justice Department filed an immediate appeal with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said the district court rejected an emergency request to sequester the ballots. He argued that every day more ballots are processed, which he described as an ongoing emergency that disenfranchises American citizens through dilution. The Solicitor General authorized the immediate appeal, and the department has filed a notice of appeal to seek an emergency order.

California mails ballots to all 23 million registered voters. More than 3.7 million people have already voted in the state. Court filings indicate that more than 500,000 ballots were processed this week, meaning the ballots are already out of their envelopes. Los Angeles County officials said it is now impossible to identify which specific ballot belongs to a particular voter.

The federal government claims it has evidence that the state refuses to accept the presence of 20,000 noncitizens registered to vote. The Justice Department stated that voter rolls were compared to records from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Social Security Administration, and the passport office. Essayli wrote that the department is enforcing existing rules rather than changing them mid-election. He emphasized that it is unlawful for noncitizens to vote.

California countered that the federal assertions relied on suspect data. The state noted that registered voters can self-declare noncitizen status to be removed from the roll, often while seeking naturalization or claiming ineligibility for jury duty. Carter found that the Justice Department did not explain why counting the ballots would impair potential prosecutions.

In Washington state, the Justice Department sent a letter on Monday asking officials not to count ballots from 400 voters it claims are not citizens. Washington had 5 million registered voters as of 2024. President Donald Trump has repeatedly insisted that states are not doing enough to stop noncitizens from voting.

Judge Carter, appointed by former President Bill Clinton, wrote that eroded trust in democracy is irreparable. He warned that if the Executive branch can discount votes based on unproven allegations, the country’s democracy is in danger. The court declined to be a party to such a process, asserting that states have control over their elections.