Judge David Carter Rejects Justice Department Bid to Block Counting of California Mail Ballots
A federal judge in Los Angeles declined to block California from counting mail ballots from more than 20,000 voters the Justice Department says may be noncitizens, the second court setback for the administration's election intervention days before the November 3 midterms.
A federal judge in Los Angeles on Wednesday rejected a Justice Department request to temporarily block California from counting mail ballots for the November 3 midterm elections from people on a list of more than 20,000 registered voters the Trump administration says are likely noncitizens.
U.S. District Judge David Carter issued the decision after a hearing on Tuesday in Los Angeles federal court. The department had asked for a temporary restraining order barring officials from counting any ballots from the voters it flagged.
On Monday, a federal appeals court had already rejected an unusual emergency request from the department that asked the appeals court to block the ballots before Carter had ruled. The district court decision is the latest setback for President Donald Trump’s effort to expand the federal government’s role in elections ahead of the midterms, with his Republican Party fighting to retain control of both houses of Congress.
The Justice Department filed the lawsuit on October 15, a rare federal intervention in a state’s voting process weeks before an election.
California disputes the list
California has said its safeguards against noncitizen voting are strong, that the department’s assertions relied on “suspect data,” and that complying with the request would risk disenfranchising eligible voters.
The department did not say how many of the more than 20,000 people it flagged in California had actually submitted a mail ballot.
California is the most populous U.S. state and a Democratic stronghold. It has more seats in the House of Representatives, 52, than any other state. State records put California’s registered voters at 23 million as of December 2025.
Similar requests in two other states
Apart from California, the Trump administration has sought to intervene in elections in two states with competitive races. In Alaska, the Justice Department last week asked a judge to prevent certification of election results if the Republican incumbent senator loses by a slim margin, alleging that another candidate with a similar name on the ballot could confuse voters. Alaska has urged that the case be dismissed, arguing it has taken steps to distinguish the two candidates on the ballot.
In Washington state, the Justice Department on Monday sent a letter asking officials not to count any ballots received from 400 voters it said may not be citizens. Washington’s top elections official said the timing of the request indicated it was intended to cast unfounded suspicion on election results. Washington had 5 million registered voters as of 2024, according to state records.
Voting rights activists have expressed concern that the federal government’s methods for scrutinizing state voter lists to identify noncitizen voters risk wrongly flagging naturalized citizens for removal from the rolls.
Trump has repeatedly said states are not doing enough to stop voting by noncitizens, which he says is widespread, while multiple studies and state audits have found it is rare, according to Reuters.
Reporting based on coverage by Reuters.
