A United States appeals court has ruled against the administration of President Donald Trump in its bid to block the state of California from counting certain mail-in ballots this election cycle. In a decision on Monday, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request from the government to sequester roughly 20,000 mailed ballots ahead of the November 3 midterm election.
Court Decision and Legal Arguments
The Trump administration had asserted that the ballots were sent to people who are likely non-citizens, but it has not publicly revealed how it created its list or determined that the voters identified upon it were ineligible due to their citizenship status. In a two-to-one decision, the appeals court said the Trump administration had not given lower courts enough time to review the case and therefore declined to stop California’s ballot tabulation.
The court’s majority also underscored that election administration was the state’s responsibility under the US Constitution. Judge Gabriel Sanchez wrote in his opinion that the administration was asking the federal court to dictate to a state legislature a matter squarely within the state’s traditional domain, while also warning that granting the petition would invite disorder and confusion for voters and election officials alike.
The Trump administration filed its lawsuit against California on October 15, less than three weeks before the midterm vote on November 3. California is a Democrat-led state, and Trump has repeatedly made unfounded claims that the state is prone to cheating in its elections. The case is currently being weighed in a lower court, with a hearing scheduled for Tuesday, though the administration sought an expedited decision from the appeals court by pointing to the looming election date.
Broader Legal Battles and Election Integrity
The midterm elections are critical to determine which political party holds power in Congress, with the Republican Party currently maintaining slim majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, while experts project the Democratic Party is on track to make significant gains. In the lead-up to the midterms, Trump has raised the prospect of non-citizen voting as a threat to election integrity, but experts say such voting is rare.
California officials have cast doubt on the administration’s claims of 20,000 ballots going to likely non-citizens, framing the lawsuit as an effort to interfere in the voting process. Lawyers for California Secretary of State Shirley Weber stated in an October 20 court filing that at best the litigation is a reckless political stunt and at worst it threatens to disenfranchise thousands of Californians this election.
Trump’s Department of Justice has sued 30 states and Washington, DC, for complete access to voter rolls containing sensitive personal data, arguing it is necessary to prevent alleged voter fraud. However, the department has lost 26 of those cases and has yet to win any, with opponents successfully arguing such manoeuvres could scare away voters and interfere with state election administration. Non-citizens are barred from participating in federal elections in all 50 states.
A July investigation by the news service Reuters found only 129 cases of non-citizens being charged by federal authorities with illegal voting since 1996, with many involving administrative errors or confusion rather than fraudulent intent. Voting rights advocates have pointed to flaws in how the administration identifies potential non-citizen voting, and immigration agents have been assigned to ferret out non-citizen voters, including charging 28 immigrants in California with illegally voting last week. Reporting from the Los Angeles Times found some of the accused reacted with confusion and maintained they never registered to vote.
Trump has a history of promoting false claims of election fraud to justify greater federal influence over the voting process, notably denying his 2020 re-election defeat to Democrat Joe Biden and blaming vote rigging, a claim that prompted supporters to storm the US Capitol on January 6, 2023, to halt the election certification.
