A federal appeals court on Friday rejected the Trump administration’s latest bid to force California to set aside ballots from over 20,000 people it alleges might be noncitizens.The “United States has not made the required showing that such extraordinary relief, during an ongoing election, is clearly required by law,” a 9th U.S.Circuit Court of Appeals panel found in a 2-1 ruling.
“As the district court found—and we discern no clear error—there is no feasible way to identify and segregate the ballots of specific individuals without potentially catastrophic effects on the entire system.” The dissenting judge, Trump appointee Patrick Bumatay, wrote that what the government had been suggesting is a “modest” remedy.“The federal government and the States can work together.
California decided long ago that aliens can’t vote in its elections.Today, the federal government merely seeks to safeguard that decision.
We should have let them try,” he wrote.The majority judges were Mark Bennet, another Trump nominee, and Gabriel Sanchez, a Biden nominee.It was the second time in a week the appeals court panel had rejected a request from the administration to intervene in the case.The administration filed suit earlier this month demanding California election officials set aside over 20,000 ballots it contended may have been sent from noncitizens.
In a ruling Wednesday, U.S.District Judge David Carter found the request “violates longstanding constitutional principles mandating that states have control over their elections.” “If Plaintiff’s last-minute request for relief were granted, either party could create chaos for their own political purposes to disrupt the election process,” he ruled.
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