Judge rejects bid to set aside 20,000 California ballots

A federal judge denied the Justice Department’s request to make California set aside roughly 20,000 ballots linked by the administration to people it said were likely noncitizens, rejecting an emergency bid to intervene in the state’s election process. The administration appealed to the Ninth Circuit, which set Friday morning as the deadline for California, Los Angeles County and voting-rights groups to respond. In his Wednesday order, U.S. District Judge David Carter said the proposed segregation would disrupt an election already underway and could discount eligible citizens’ votes. He also said the administration’s allegations about noncitizen voters were not credible and that the requested intervention could violate federal law. The order denied the government’s application for a temporary restraining order. The Justice Department sought to prevent election officials from processing the ballots until the citizenship of the voters could be verified. The administration said the roughly 20,000 names were likely noncitizens and that its evidence supported the list. California and local officials challenged its reliability; Los Angeles County found that some people on the list...