- A federal appeals court ordered California to respond by noon Saturday to the Trump administration's emergency request involving roughly 20,000 mail-in ballots sent to people the Justice Department (DOJ) suspects are noncitizens ahead of the midterm elections.
- The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued the order late Friday after the DOJ filed an emergency request earlier in the day seeking a ruling by Saturday, following U.S. District Judge David Carter not ruling by a requested deadline.
- The DOJ is asking California election officials to set aside ballots associated with individuals on its list while their eligibility is reviewed, rather than allowing the ballots to be processed alongside other votes.
- Despite the Ninth Circuit's order, a hearing before Judge Carter remains scheduled for Tuesday, according to Fox News' Matt Finn.
- California election officials have rejected the DOJ's demands, arguing that county election offices lack both authority and access to federal records needed to verify voters' citizenship status, and that separating ballots would be impossible where ballots have already been processed.
- According to court records, officials have already processed 331,000 ballots in Los Angeles County alone. Friday's escalation comes after Essayli's office initially filed the suit Oct. 15, roughly two weeks after California began mailing ballots.
The DOJ is asking California election officials to set aside ballots associated with individuals on its list while their eligibility is reviewed, rather than allowing the ballots to be processed alongside other votes.4
"This is an emergency," the filing, submitted by Attorney General and First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, stated.
"Every minute of processing that occurs without segregating the ballots of suspected non-eligible voters causes untraceable disenfranchisement and dilution of the votes of United States citizens," the filing continued.
Despite the Ninth Circuit's order, a hearing before Judge Carter remains scheduled for Tuesday, according to Fox News' Matt Finn.5
California election officials have rejected the Justice Department's demands.
In court filings, they argued that county election offices lack both the authority and access to federal records needed to verify voters' citizenship status.
They also said separating ballots associated with people on the DOJ's list would be impossible in cases where the ballots have already been processed.
According to court records, officials have already processed 331,000 ballots in Los Angeles County alone.910
Friday's escalation comes after Essayli's office initially filed the suit Oct. 15, roughly two weeks after California began mailing ballots.
“The DOJ's filing, submitted by Attorney General Bill Essayli, argues that every minute of processing without segregating the ballots causes untraceable disenfranchisement and dilution of citizens' votes. California officials counter that counties lack authority and access to federal records to verify citizenship, and that separating already-processed ballots is impossible.”
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