Supreme Court Denial: DOJ Loses Final Push on California Ballots

The Department of Justice identified 20,000 individuals as likely noncitizens on California's voter rolls. The U.S. Supreme Court denied the department's last-minute request to intervene in the dispute on Monday evening. This decision arrived just hours before the election was scheduled for Tuesday.

The Justice Department sought an emergency injunction to stop California from counting these ballots until citizenship could be verified. A divided panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals had previously rejected the same request on Friday. The high court's refusal allows the state and Los Angeles County to continue processing votes without a federal halt.

Judges Mark Bennett and Gabriel Sanchez wrote that granting the federal government's relief carried a material risk of disenfranchisement. They noted that the move could jeopardize the county's entire election. The opinion cited the Purcell principle, which advises against changing election rules immediately before a vote. It also referenced the National Voter Registration Act, which restricts removing ineligible voters within 90 days of a federal election.

Judge Patrick Bumatay filed a dissenting opinion. The actual number of disputed ballots is likely lower than the 20,000 figure cited by the Justice Department. County officials determined that many people on the federal list did not have active registrations and were not mailed ballots. Data scientists from the University of California Los Angeles Voting Rights Project reviewed the list over the weekend. They found that 42 percent of the names did not appear on California's current voter roll. The analysis also identified naturalized citizens on the list.

The legal conflict follows a pattern of federal involvement in state election administration. A federal judge in San Francisco recently described this as a broad, ongoing pattern of attempted election interference. The Justice Department has sent subpoenas to California election officials in recent weeks. The department also reminded officials of the possibility of criminal prosecution for allowing ineligible voters to cast ballots. A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order late Friday to bar the administration from threatening or coercing these officials. The federal government has appealed that order.