DOJ makes final pitch to block 20,000 California ballots ahead of crucial court hearing

The Department of Justice (DOJ) urged a federal appeals court to reject California’s motion to dismiss the federal government’s dangerous lawsuit to stop state officials from counting ballots from tens of thousands of people the Trump administration claims may be noncitizens. 

The DOJ’s filing on Sunday comes hours before a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments in the case.

The Trump administration is seeking an injunction that would block California from tabulating ballots from more than 20,000 people flagged by various federal agencies as “likely” noncitizens until their citizenship status can be confirmed. 

“Despite the critical interests at stake, counties throughout the State continue to process tens of thousands of ballots as steadily as a metronome, willfully indifferent to the fact that upwards of 20,000 of those ballots may have been cast by noncitizens,” the DOJ wrote.

The lawsuit, filed after voting in California was well underway, is a significant escalation in President Donald Trump’s bid to subvert the midterm elections. Attorney General Todd Blanche has threatened “a number of states” with similar lawsuits.

State officials have argued the Trump administration lacks standing and has no legal authority to demand ballots be set aside. They also question the administration’s methodology for creating the list of 20,000 alleged noncitizen voters, and said an initial review of a sample of people on that list found 1 in 4 were born in the U.S.

The Trump administration took its case to the Ninth Circuit before District Judge David O. Carter had a chance to rule on the administration’s request for a temporary restraining order. Though Carter has set a hearing for Tuesday, the Trump administration demanded a decision by last week and then filed the highly unusual appeal when it didn’t get a response by its self-imposed deadline. 

Carter is a Clinton appointee who earlier this year rejected the DOJ’s effort to obtain the state’s unredacted voter rolls.

The DOJ on Sunday accused Carter of “failure to promptly act in the face of grave urgency.”

The administration wants the Ninth Circuit to grant the injunction and order Carter to cancel Tuesday’s hearing altogether, alleging the district court would lack jurisdiction in the matter.

California officials on Saturday urged the Ninth Circuit to dismiss the lawsuit and the administration’s attempt to sidestep lower court review, saying the “request is as unprecedented as it is meritless.”

“The consequences of granting the injunction would not end with this election, moreover,” Los Angeles County warned. “An order holding ballots on the basis of unreliable voter-roll maintenance lists would establish that any federal agency, armed with a list, may halt the count in any county in the nation. No court has endorsed that proposition, and Congress has foreclosed it. The public interest does not favor making Los Angeles County the first test case.”