A U.S. District Court judge on Tuesday appeared skeptical of the Justice Department's request to prevent California from counting mail ballots from more than 20,000 registered voters whom the Trump administration alleges are noncitizens. U.S. District Judge David Carter voiced concerns that sequestering ballots could disenfranchise and confuse legitimate voters, calling it a "monumental change" to election procedures while voting is already in progress.
Carter stated he would issue a ruling Wednesday on the Justice Department's request for a temporary order that would bar officials from counting any ballots from the individuals the administration has identified as noncitizens. This lawsuit represents a rare intervention by the Justice Department into the voting process weeks before the November 3 midterm elections, a period marked by a competitive battle for Republican control of both houses of Congress. Several states, including California, had already begun early voting.
During the hearing, Justice Department lawyer Bilal Essayli asserted that the federal government's request was narrow and intended to ensure election integrity. Judge Carter responded that the traditional remedy for voter fraud is criminal indictment, and that unlawfully cast ballots can be removed after Election Day, prior to the certification of official results. "You've got a remedy, for goodness sake," the judge told the prosecutor. "Go out and indict."
While the U.S. Constitution assigns individual states the responsibility for administering elections, the federal government holds some oversight authority. California has maintained that its safeguards against noncitizen voting are robust. Anne Bellows, a lawyer representing California, argued during the hearing that the Justice Department's assertions relied on "mysterious database methods." She added that complying with the demands would risk disenfranchising eligible voters, noting that "the Supreme Court has reiterated time and again that, as an election is close at hand, federal courts should not interfere to change the rules under which that election is held."
Department of Elections workers sort mail-in ballots for the California primary election at City Hall on Tuesday, June 2, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
The hearing followed an emergency request rejection by a federal appeals court on Monday. The Justice Department had asked the appeals court to temporarily block California from counting the ballots before Carter could rule.
The Justice Department has not specified how many of the over 20,000 individuals it flagged in California had actually submitted a mail ballot. Beyond California, the Trump administration has sought to intervene in elections in two other states with competitive races. In Alaska, the Justice Department asked a judge to prevent certification of election results if the Republican incumbent senator lost by a slim margin, citing a similar candidate name on the ballot potentially confusing voters. Alaska has urged dismissal, stating it took steps to distinguish the candidates. In Washington state, the Justice Department sent a letter asking officials not to count ballots from 400 voters it claimed might not be citizens. Washington's top elections official suggested the timing of the request was intended to cast unfounded suspicion on election results.
Voting rights activists have expressed concern that the federal government's methods for scrutinizing state voter lists risk wrongly flagging naturalized citizens for removal from voter rolls.