LOS ANGELES — The Justice Department asked a federal judge Tuesday to stop California from counting ballots tied to roughly 20,000 voters until the government can confirm they are citizens. That is quite the request to drop on an election already in progress — like demanding the roast-beef shop un-fry the onion rings because somebody just remembered the health inspection.
Associated Press reporting from the hearing says the administration sued after California officials did not meet a 48-hour demand to review DOJ’s list of people it alleges are likely noncitizens on the rolls. Federal prosecutor Bill Essayli told the court DOJ was not seeking to void ballots, but to safeguard the election. Fine words; the actual ask is still to interrupt how ballots are handled while votes are coming in.
California and Los Angeles County lawyers said completed mail ballots are separated from identifying envelopes, meaning officials cannot reliably pull particular ballots back out of the pile. More than 3 million ballots had already been returned, according to the state’s position reported by AP. That is not a filing cabinet, pal; it is the whole election administration system working as designed.
A divided Ninth Circuit panel rejected DOJ’s emergency effort Monday, saying it was premature to step in before the district judge heard the dispute. AP also reports that California officials challenged the accuracy and provenance of the federal list, while a USCIS official defended the government’s review method. So the fight is not merely whether noncitizens may vote — they may not in federal elections — but whether a last-minute federal list can upend ballot processing before its reliability has been fully tested. Terrific. Exactly the sort of thing you want humming on the CB while democracy drives through a Nor’easter.
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Featured image: CA-LosAngeles 1940 Ref.jpg by National Archives, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
