Justice Department Petitions Supreme Court to Halt California Ballot Processing

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a notice with the Supreme Court on Monday seeking injunctive relief to stop California from processing ballots from individuals it deems likely noncitizens. The petition arrives one day before the November 3 election, marking the latest escalation in a legal dispute between the federal government and state election officials. The Justice Department claims its analysis identified 20,000 probable noncitizens on the state voter roll. It argues these ballots should be segregated until citizenship status is verified.

Federal Judge David Carter, a Clinton appointee, previously rejected the DOJ's request to halt processing. He described the department's actions as a broad, ongoing pattern of attempted election interference. A divided Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel later upheld that rejection on Friday. The majority opinion, written by Judges Mark Bennett and Gabriel Sanchez, warned that granting the federal government's request carried a material risk of disenfranchisement. They cited the Purcell principle, which discourages changing election rules on the eve of an election, and noted that states retain constitutional authority to administer their own elections.

The courts also relied on the National Voter Registration Act, which restricts states from systematically removing ineligible voters within 90 days of a federal election. Judge Patrick Bumatay, a Trump appointee, dissented from the Ninth Circuit panel's decision. The legal team for California and Los Angeles County argued that the federal list is unreliable. They contended that building a new system to segregate ballots while voting is underway is practically impossible.

Data analysis supports the state's position regarding the reliability of the DOJ list. Researchers from the University of California Los Angeles Voting Rights Project accessed the federal list through a court order in a separate lawsuit. Their findings indicated that 42% of the names on the DOJ list do not appear on California's current voter roll. The analysis also identified naturalized citizens included in the federal government's list. County election officials have noted that many individuals on the DOJ list did not hold active registrations or receive mail ballots, suggesting the actual number of disputed ballots is lower than the 20,000 figure.

The Supreme Court has not yet decided whether to take up the case or issue a ruling before Tuesday. The petition follows a week of heightened tension between federal and state authorities. The Justice Department recently issued subpoenas to California election officials and warned them of potential criminal prosecution for allowing ineligible voters to cast ballots. A federal judge in San Francisco issued a temporary restraining order late Friday, barring the Trump administration from threatening or coercing these officials. The federal government has appealed that specific order as well.