Appeals court rejects bid to set aside disputed California ballots

A federal appeals panel on Friday rejected the Justice Department's bid to have California set aside midterm ballots tied to voters whose citizenship the administration disputes, according to ABC7 Los Angeles. The panel ruled 2-1, leaving in place a district court decision denying the request.

The dispute pits the administration's allegations about noncitizen voters against California officials' warnings that its list is unreliable and likely includes many citizens. The courts found that separating individual voters' ballots could disrupt election processing and put eligible voters' ballots at risk.

The Trump administration alleges California sent ballots to about 20,000 people who may not be U.S. citizens. It sought to have disputed ballots held apart until citizenship could be verified, ABC7 Los Angeles reported. California officials dispute the reliability of that list.

Judges Mark J. Bennett and Gabriel P. Sanchez wrote the majority opinion for the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel. Appointed by Donald Trump and Joe Biden, respectively, they found no clear error in the lower court's conclusion that identifying and separating specific voters' ballots was not feasible without risking severe disruption.

Election officials said ballots become anonymous once processed and cannot then be linked to the voters who submitted them. Millions of Californians had already voted, with hundreds of thousands of ballots processed, according to the report.

In a related case, a federal judge in Washington ordered the administration to provide the disputed list to attorneys for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights and the UCLA Voting Rights Project. The groups sued the Homeland Security Department in early October, arguing that errors in matching immigration records to voter rolls could disenfranchise citizens.

A coalition of unions also sought a temporary order to block Justice Department demands to halt ballot counting and threats of criminal prosecution against election officials who did not comply. Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, warned that officials who knowingly process a noncitizen's ballot could face legal consequences, ABC7 Los Angeles reported.

The Associated Press obtained subpoenas seeking Los Angeles County election officials' records and communications about the federal allegations and efforts to keep the disputed votes from being counted. At least three county election officials were asked to appear before a grand jury on Wednesday, Nov. 4, the day after the election.

Whether the Justice Department plans to bring criminal charges remains unclear, according to ABC7 Los Angeles. The department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.