Appeals Court Denies Trump Administration Bid to Segregate California Ballots

A federal appeals court has once again blocked an attempt by the Trump administration to intervene in California’s election procedures. In a 2-1 decision, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a request from the Department of Justice to force state officials to isolate approximately 20,000 mail-in ballots that federal authorities flagged as potentially cast by noncitizens. This ruling marks the second time in less than a week that the court has denied the administration's efforts to alter the state's ballot handling process.

The majority opinion, authored by Judges Mark J. Bennett and Gabriel P. Sanchez, emphasized that the government's demand would be both unconstitutional and practically impossible to implement. The court noted that because many ballots have already been processed and anonymized, there is no viable method to identify or segregate specific votes without causing significant disruption to the broader electoral system. The judges affirmed the findings of a lower court, which had previously determined that such an intervention could lead to catastrophic effects on the integrity of the vote count.

California election officials have consistently challenged the reliability of the federal list, arguing that it likely includes many eligible U.S. citizens. They maintain that once ballots are processed, they cannot be traced back to individual voters, rendering the administration's request to set them aside technically unachievable. The state has characterized the federal pressure as an attempt to interfere with local election administration.

While the majority ruled against the administration, the decision was not unanimous. Judge Patrick Bumatay dissented, expressing concern that the state's current procedures might fail to prevent noncitizens from participating in the election, arguing that this undermines federal authority. Despite this dissent, the ruling leaves the lower court's decision in place, allowing California to continue its current ballot processing operations as the midterm election approaches.