The Department of Justice escalated its conflict with California election administration on Monday by appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court for intervention regarding voter rolls. The federal government has identified approximately 20,000 individuals it describes as “likely” noncitizens currently registered to vote in the state and seeks to prevent their ballots from being counted pending citizenship verification.
Lower courts have rejected the DOJ’s emergency requests on multiple grounds. Federal Judge David Carter and a divided panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals both declined to order California to segregate and halt processing of the contested ballots. The court panel cited the Purcell principle, which establishes that election rules should not be altered immediately before voting takes place, as well as constitutional authority granted to states over election administration. The panel also referenced the National Voter Registration Act, which prohibits systematic voter removals within 90 days of federal elections.
Questions surround the actual scope of the dispute. County election officials determined that many individuals on the DOJ’s list did not maintain active voter registrations and were not sent ballots. Analysis by researchers at UCLA’s Voting Rights Project, who obtained access to the federal government’s list through a separate court proceeding, found that 42 percent of names did not appear on California’s current voter roll. The analysis also identified naturalized citizens among those listed.
The Supreme Court appeal represents the latest development in an intensifying dispute between federal and state election authorities. The Justice Department has recently issued subpoenas to California election officials and cautioned them of potential criminal liability for processing ballots from voters the federal government deems ineligible. A federal judge in San Francisco issued a temporary restraining order late Friday prohibiting the Trump administration from threatening or coercing election officials regarding processing of registered voter ballots, though the federal government has appealed this order.
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