Appeals Court Rejects Trump Administration's Bid to Disqualify 20,000 Ballots Ahead of California Midterms

In a significant ruling just days before the November 3 midterm elections, a United States appeals court has twice rejected a petition from the Trump administration seeking to set aside 20,000 ballots in California. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, in its latest decision on Friday, stated that the administration's request would not only violate the US Constitution but also posed a risk of disenfranchising eligible voters.

The majority opinion, penned by judges Mark Bennett (appointed by Trump) and Gabriel Sanchez (appointed by Joe Biden), highlighted the severe consequences of the request. "The consequence of the United States’s request is not merely ballot segregation, but ultimately both the cancellation of the ballot and the removal of voters from the voting rolls," the judges wrote. A dissenting opinion came from Trump appointee Patrick Bumatay, who deemed the administration’s petition a "reasonable request".

The Trump administration had contended that nearly 20,000 "likely non-citizens" received mail-in ballots for California's midterm elections and filed a lawsuit on October 15 to prevent these ballots from being counted. However, the accuracy of the administration's list and its claims of widespread non-citizen voting have been questioned, with election fraud and non-citizen voting being exceedingly rare in the US.

Similar attempts by the Trump administration to identify non-citizen voters in states like Nevada and Washington have also faced scrutiny. Nevada authorities stated in September that the administration had erroneously identified citizens as non-citizens on its lists, with not a single name being correct. California, a Democratic stronghold where 52 House of Representatives members will be elected, has been a frequent target of criticism from President Trump, who has accused its Democratic leadership of "cheating".

California officials, including Governor Gavin Newsom, have pushed back against these claims, asserting that the Trump administration is attempting to interfere in the state's elections to foster distrust and undermine results. Newsom described the lawsuit as a "sad, desperate attempt by Trump to use his politicized Justice Department to try to suppress California voters."

It is illegal for non-citizens to vote in federal elections in all US states, including California. The Constitution's Election Clause grants states the primary authority to administer elections. The Trump administration first provided California with its list of "likely non-citizens" on October 12, but state officials refused to set aside the ballots without proof that the individuals were indeed foreign nationals, evidence that the California government claims was not provided.

The administration had also recently charged 28 foreign nationals in California with election-related infractions, though some of the accused reportedly told the Los Angeles Times they had never registered to vote, and reporting suggested some defendants shared names with eligible voters. The 9th Circuit Court had previously rejected an emergency ruling request on Monday, citing insufficient time for lower courts to consider the matter. A lower court had ruled against the administration on Wednesday before the latest appeal.

In its majority decision, the appeals court characterized the lawsuit as an effort to contravene the Constitution's Election Clause. "We decline the United States’s invitation to contravene the Elections Clause by undermining the Constitution’s plain text," the majority stated, expressing "major concerns" that granting the request would "harm the public interest by risking the disenfranchisement of eligible voters and putting the entire tabulation process in jeopardy".