Appeals Court Blocks Justice Department Bid to Segregate California Ballots

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 on Friday that California does not need to separate ballots from approximately 20,000 individuals that the administration claims may not be U.S. citizens. The decision halted the Justice Department's push to withhold those ballots from the midterm count pending citizenship verification. The majority opinion was authored by Judge Mark J. Bennett and Judge Gabriel P. Sanchez.

The ruling follows a district court judge's denial of the request earlier this week, which warned that the segregation demand could disenfranchise voters. The appellate panel upheld that finding, stating there is no feasible way to isolate specific ballots without risking damage to the wider system. Judge Patrick J. Bumatay issued a dissent, arguing that the state's refusal to separate the ballots encourages the violation of federal law.

Millions of ballots have already been cast in California, with the election concluding Tuesday. Election officials have processed hundreds of thousands of ballots, though they say these votes cannot be matched back to individual voters. California officials maintain that the list of 20,000 names is unreliable and likely includes many U.S. citizens.

Earlier on Friday, a separate federal judge ordered the administration to release the disputed list to attorneys for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights and the UCLA Voting Rights Project. The government appealed that decision on Friday evening. The groups sued the Homeland Security Department in early October to block the use of federal immigration data on state voter rolls, citing cases where federal data erroneously included thousands of citizens.

The Justice Department has stated it will appeal the ballot-segregation ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. Department spokesperson Kiersten V. Pels wrote in an email that every ballot cast by an ineligible voter cancels out an American citizen's vote. In a separate statement, the department said enforcing federal law against noncitizen voting is its job.

In a separate ruling on Friday, the 9th Circuit halted federal investigations into noncitizen voting across nine states until after Election Day. The panel found that publicized investigations caused some citizens to avoid election activities for fear of being targeted. The investigations may resume after Tuesday.

A coalition of unions, including the A.F.L.-C.I.O. and AFSCME, filed suit on Friday to block the Justice Department from demanding local officials stop counting ballots. The suit also seeks to drop threats of criminal prosecution against officials who do not comply. Los Angeles County prosecutors have subpoenaed three election officials to appear before a grand jury on Wednesday.