Well, here we go: the Justice Department sued California on October 15, asking a federal judge to block the counting of vote-by-mail ballots from more than 20,000 people the administration says are likely noncitizens. The complaint seeks to make California set aside those ballots until citizenship can be verified. Nothing says calm, orderly election administration like rolling into the final stretch with a legal demand built around a government spreadsheet and the urgency of a guy yelling into a CB radio from the Market Basket parking lot.
The government’s own filed complaint says federal agencies gave California a list on October 13 and contends that the listed people may be registered for the November 3 federal election. California sends mail ballots to registered voters under state law; DOJ wants ballots from people on its list segregated rather than tabulated unless their status is confirmed.
California officials were given just 48 hours to review the names, and the secretary of state’s office said DOJ did not provide evidence substantiating its claims, according to Associated Press reporting. The underlying point remains plain enough, even through the legal fog machine: an administration assertion that someone is “likely” ineligible is not the same thing as a court finding, and holding ballots at the eleventh hour can put eligible voters in a bureaucratic penalty box. Great system, gang. Next they’ll want the ballots checked against empty Michelob bottles behind the nonexistent Winchester McDonald’s.
This is not a ruling on whether any listed person is eligible to vote; it is a newly filed federal lawsuit seeking emergency election-process changes. The court—not a thumb drive, not a press release, not some seagull screaming over a roast-beef wrapper—will decide whether DOJ’s requested intervention has a legal basis.
Sources
- https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1466286/dl
- https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/united-states-sues-california-after-determining-more-20000-likely-noncitizens-are
- https://apnews.com/article/98365a44e96e46de14ad44e62ac7dd70
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Featured image: Shirley Weber (cropped).jpg by California Secretary of State's office, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
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