Judge Rejects DOJ Bid to Set Aside California Ballots

A federal judge on October 28 denied the Justice Department’s emergency request to make California election officials set aside ballots associated with roughly 20,000 people the government suspects may be noncitizens. The decision leaves the state’s ballot-processing procedures in place while the lawsuit continues. U.S. District Judge David O. Carter said the requested intervention could disrupt an election already underway and risk disenfranchising eligible voters. In his written order, he warned that separating ballots on the basis of unproven allegations could harm voters and election workers. The order rejected the department’s request for immediate relief; it did not resolve the underlying dispute over the federal list or the government’s authority to require changes to state procedures. The Justice Department says it sought to hold the flagged ballots aside until voters’ citizenship could be checked, not to cancel them automatically. Federal officials argue that counting ballots before verification could make it impossible to identify any cast by people who are not eligible to vote. Noncitizen voting is prohibited under federal and California law, but the court case...