U.S. District Judge David O. Carter has rejected the Trump administration’s request to stop California from processing ballots linked to as many as 20,000 registered voters the Justice Department says are likely noncitizens, Fox Newsreported Thursday. The Justice Department said it would appeal.
Carter warned that segregating the ballots would “wreak havoc” on the election and risk disenfranchising eligible voters.
How the list was built
The Justice Department sued California election officials in mid-October, accusing them of ignoring a 48-hour deadline to review its list of 20,000 names, according to an AP report carried by Fox 19. Roughly 800 federal employees checked each name by hand, the AP reported. A federal agent’s affidavit said Los Angeles County’s claims about errors in a sample of the list were false, while conceding some names could have been included by mistake.
“We have not asked to void any ballots,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli told the court at a hearing Tuesday. “Our goal is not to prosecute tens of thousands of people. It’s to safeguard the election.”
Lawyers for the state and Los Angeles County said the government had not explained how it obtained California’s voter file and questioned its use of a private service to match Social Security numbers. They also said ballots can’t be pulled back out once they are separated from their envelopes, and that more than 3 million ballots had already been returned.
So I’m pretty sure the 9th Circuit is going to dismiss the appeal on Jurisdiction. Send it down to the District Judge Carter and he’ll deny the TRO and they will be back at the 9th Circuit. Hopefully with a much better lawyer representing the USA.
— John Reese – Person of Interest (@Rickisback_ON_X) October 25, 2026
“Go out and indict”
At Tuesday’s hearing, Carter asked why the government was suing instead of prosecuting. “You got a remedy for goodness sakes — go out and indict,” he said from the bench.
He floated appointing a special master to review the federal list before California’s Dec. 11 deadline to certify results. Before leaving the courtroom, he added, “This court believes it would be wise that any threats to state and county election employees cease immediately,” a reference to warnings that county clerks who refused to comply could face prosecution.
The department has also brought criminal cases. On Monday it announced charges against 48 noncitizens in five states, including 28 in California, for crimes including voting in federal elections and falsely claiming citizenship to register, the Washington Examiner reported. The department has made a similar request in Washington state covering hundreds of ballots.
The bottom line
The federal government told California it had found up to 20,000 likely noncitizens on its rolls and asked the state to check. The department says the state let the deadline pass. The administration then asked a court only to set those ballots aside while the names were reviewed, and its lawyer said plainly that it was not asking to throw out a single vote.
The judge said no, on the grounds that it would cause chaos. Then he told prosecutors to go indict people, one day after the department announced charges against 28 Californians. The state’s argument that ballots cannot be separated once opened is an argument for checking eligibility before ballots go out, which is exactly what Washington asked Sacramento to do in the first place.
If even a fraction of those 20,000 names are noncitizens, that is enough to matter in California’s close House races. The appeals court should move quickly, and Carter should appoint his special master now so the list is checked before results are certified, not after.