California judge denies federal request to segregate ballots, warning it would wreak havoc on voting underway

Judge rejects ballot segregation

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter ruled Wednesday against the administration’s request to delay counting ballots while voters’ immigration status was checked. The federal lawsuit accused California election officials of failing to review a list of 20,000 suspected noncitizens within 48 hours.

Carter said counties would need new procedures to separate the ballots, risking harm to voters. He wrote that once a vote is segregated, lasting damage has occurred, and said the court would not take part in that process.

Counting is already underway

California sends ballots to all 23 million registered voters. Court filings showed that more than 500,000 ballots had been processed by that week, with envelopes verified and ballots removed.

Los Angeles County officials testified that this made it virtually impossible to identify which ballot belonged to a particular voter. Carter also noted that more than 3.7 million people had already voted statewide.

The ruling rejected the Justice Department’s claim that California was obstructing federal law enforcement. Carter pointed to prosecutors’ arrest of 28 noncitizens accused of illegally voting or registering.

Appeal and related cases

The Justice Department said it would appeal Wednesday evening, its second appeal in the case. An earlier appeal was rejected by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals because it came before the district court had ruled; two judges also expressed strong doubts about the lawsuit’s merits.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli defended the case after the ruling, arguing on social media that processing more ballots would dilute citizens’ votes. He had told the court that segregated ballots could be counted later.

Similar disputes are unfolding elsewhere. The Justice Department made a comparable request in Washington state involving hundreds of suspected noncitizens, while a lawsuit in Alaska seeks to delay vote certification if the Republican Senate incumbent loses. The states have congressional races that could affect control of Congress.