Justice Department Seeks Supreme Court Order on California Ballots

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a notice on Monday seeking emergency injunctive relief from the U.S. Supreme Court. The request asks the high court to intervene in a dispute with California over how the state handles voter ballots. This move comes one day before Tuesday's Election Day.

The department identified approximately 20,000 individuals on California's voter roll whom it describes as likely noncitizens. The Justice Department argues that these ballots should not be counted until citizenship is verified. The appeal follows lower court decisions that rejected the federal government's initial requests to stop processing these votes.

A divided panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision on Friday denying the Justice Department's emergency request. Judges Mark Bennett and Gabriel Sanchez wrote that there is a material risk that granting the federal relief would disenfranchise voters and jeopardize the entire election in Los Angeles County. The two judges cited the Purcell principle, which advises against changing election rules on the eve of an election. They also noted that the Constitution grants states authority to administer elections.

Judge Patrick Bumatay, who sat on the panel, issued a dissenting opinion. He argued in favor of the federal government's position. The lower court judges had previously described the federal approach as a broad, ongoing pattern of attempted election interference.

Election officials in California and Los Angeles County maintain that the federal list is unreliable. They argue that creating a new system to segregate ballots while voting is already underway is infeasible. A federal judge in San Francisco, David Carter, a Clinton appointee, rejected the Justice Department's earlier request to order California to set aside the ballots of thousands of people.

Recent data analysis suggests the actual number of disputed ballots is lower than the 20,000 figure cited by the Justice Department. County election officials found that many people on the federal list did not have active voter registrations and were not mailed ballots. Data scientists from the University of California, Los Angeles, Voting Rights Project accessed the list over the weekend through a court order in a separate lawsuit. Their analysis found that 42% of the names on the list do not appear on California's current voter roll. The group also identified naturalized citizens among the names provided by the federal government.

The dispute is part of a wider conflict between the Justice Department and California election officials. In recent weeks, the department sent subpoenas to state election officials and reminded 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. That order bars the administration from threatening, intimidating, or coercing election officials to demand they stop processing ballots. The federal government has appealed that restraining order as well.