Appeals court again rejects Trump administration bid to set aside California ballots

A United States appeals court on Friday, October 30, rejected another attempt by President Donald Trump’s administration to set aside roughly 20,000 California ballots over allegations of non-citizen voting. The decision was the administration’s second rejection by the appeals court in less than a week, ahead of the November 3 midterm elections.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals majority concluded that the requested intervention would violate the Constitution and could prevent eligible voters from having their votes counted. Judges Mark Bennett, appointed by Trump, and Gabriel Sanchez, appointed by former President Joe Biden, formed the majority. Judge Patrick Bumatay, another Trump appointee, dissented and described the petition as a “reasonable request”.

The majority said the consequences would extend beyond separating ballots, ultimately resulting in ballots being cancelled and voters being removed from registration rolls. It also expressed concern that granting the request could jeopardise the entire vote tabulation process. The judges framed the lawsuit as an effort to contravene the Constitution’s Elections Clause, which gives states authority to administer elections while allowing Congress to regulate voting procedures.

The dispute began after the administration sent California a list on October 12 identifying about 20,000 people as “likely non-citizens” who had received mail-in ballots. State officials refused to set aside the ballots and asked for evidence that those listed were foreign nationals. California’s government says that evidence has not been supplied. The administration sued on October 15 to stop the ballots from being counted.

An earlier emergency request reached the appeals court on Monday, but the judges rejected it because lower courts had not been given sufficient time to consider the dispute. A lower court subsequently ruled against the administration on Wednesday, prompting the renewed appeal that was rejected on Friday.

Questions about the list’s accuracy accompany broader doubts about the administration’s allegations of widespread non-citizen voting. Both election fraud and non-citizen voting are extremely rare in the US. Trump nevertheless asserted earlier this year that as many as 278,000 foreign nationals were registered to vote nationwide. Federal law prohibits non-citizens from voting in federal elections in all 50 states.

Officials in Nevada and Washington have also found lists of alleged non-citizen voters supplied by the administration to be largely inaccurate. Nevada authorities said in September that citizens had been wrongly classified as non-citizens and that not one name on the state’s list was correct.

Last week, the administration charged 28 foreign nationals in California with election-related infractions. Some defendants told the Los Angeles Times that they had never registered to vote. The newspaper’s reporting suggested that some shared names with eligible voters.

California, a Democratic stronghold, will elect 52 House of Representatives members on November 3. Trump has repeatedly accused its Democratic leadership of election cheating. Governor Gavin Newsom and other state officials have countered that the administration is trying to interfere with voting, erode public trust and undermine election results. After the October 15 lawsuit, Newsom accused Trump of using the Justice Department to suppress California voters.