Appeals Court Rejects DOJ Bid to Block 20,000 Disputed California Ballots
The Justice Department's emergency request to prevent the counting of mail-in ballots tied to suspected noncitizen voters was denied by the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals.
A federal appeals court on Monday denied the Justice Department's emergency bid to prevent California from counting more than 20,000 disputed mail-in ballots just days before the election. The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 against the Trump administration's attempt to set aside ballots that federal officials suspect belong to noncitizens.
Judges Mark Bennett and Gabriel Sanchez ruled that the Justice Department had acted prematurely by appealing before a lower court had sufficient time to consider the request. The ruling came after the DOJ accused California officials of failing to make a substantial effort to identify and remove suspected noncitizens from voter rolls.
Despite the appeals court's decision, the legal battle is not over. A federal judge is scheduled to hear arguments on the matter. In a dissenting opinion, Judge Patrick Bumatay expressed concern that "those questionable ballots are now rolling in." He argued that "once those ballots are processed, it would be impossible to identify them, and they must be counted in the election." Bumatay added, "None of California’s counterarguments prevent the federal government from stepping in and seeking to stop California from burying its head in the sand while aliens may be voting in federal elections."
The DOJ's lawsuit alleged that state officials did not meet a 48-hour deadline to review the nearly 20,000 names the administration had flagged as suspicious. The district judge had initially scheduled a hearing for October 27, but the administration opted for a direct appeal to the 9th Circuit Court.
First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli stated previously that if California made its records available, the DOJ could quickly determine citizenship status using their established systems. "We can quickly put them through our established systems to determine who’s a citizen and who’s not," he told Fox News last week.