Washington — A federal judge on Tuesday condemned a Justice Department lawsuit seeking to force California to set aside mail ballots from up to 20,000 alleged noncitizens as an attempt to “disrupt an ongoing election and create confusion and uncertainty.”
The one-paragraph order from U.S. District Judge David Carter came in response to the Trump administration’s move to voluntarily dismiss the suit it filed against California officials and Dean Logan, the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder and county clerk, just weeks before the midterm elections.
“This lawsuit attempted to disrupt an ongoing election and create confusion and uncertainty for voters and election workers alike,” Carter wrote. “The right to vote is sacred. So, too, is trust in our democracy.”
The Justice Department filed its lawsuit after alleging that there were more than 20,000 people who it believed were not U.S. citizens but were registered to vote in California. It sought a court order forcing election workers to separate mail ballots returned by those it had identified as suspected noncitizens.
The lawsuit was filed in mid-October, after voting in California had begun and after hundreds of thousands of mail ballots had already been returned to election offices.
Carter, appointed by former President Bill Clinton, rejected the Trump administration’s effort to require election workers to put aside those ballots and not count them until voters’ citizenship could be verified. After failing to secure similar relief from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit and the Supreme Court before the Nov. 3 midterm elections, the Justice Department notified Carter on Saturday that it would be dismissing the case.
“In light of the Supreme Court’s denial, the United States is evaluating how to best ensure that American votes are protected, including by preventing vote dilution by noncitizens,” a Justice Department lawyer wrote in a filing.
The Trump administration said that by the time of the court’s next hearing in the case, set for Friday, “California will have already commingled the challenged ballots with lawful ones. There is then no way to get the challenged ballots segregated. As a result, the relief the United States sought and needed is no longer available—rendering voluntary dismissal necessary.”
In his brief order, Carter officially closed the case and canceled Friday’s hearing.
