A federal appeals court on Sunday appeared skeptical of a lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump's administration that seeks to force California officials to set aside thousands of mail-in ballots allegedly sent to non-citizens ahead of the midterm elections, Reuters reported.
Source: Reuters, via SRN News
During a rare weekend oral argument, two judges on a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sharply questioned a Justice Department lawyer about the lawsuit, which Reuters described as a high-profile effort by the administration to expand the federal government's role in elections ahead of the midterms, with control of both houses of Congress at stake.
The Justice Department sued California on October 15, seeking an order to sequester ballots linked to people on a federal list of suspected non-citizens. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli has said the list contains at least 20,000 names, describing that figure as a floor. Those are the department's allegations; no court has ruled that the ballots were unlawfully cast.
Source: American Almanac, reporting Fox News
After U.S. District Judge David Carter did not rule by a deadline the department sought, the Justice Department filed an emergency request with the Ninth Circuit on Friday. The appeals court ordered California to respond by noon Saturday, and the state filed its response before Sunday's argument.
California election officials have rejected the department's demands. In court filings they argued that county election offices lack both the authority and the access to federal records needed to verify voters' citizenship status, and that separating ballots would be impossible where a ballot has already been processed, because once a mail ballot's signature is verified the ballot is separated from its identifying envelope.
Source: World Today Journal
State attorneys have also challenged the accuracy of the federal list, pointing to a sampled group in which, they say, more than 70 percent had no voting history and nearly 40 percent were born in the United States. Separately, 28 people from the wider list have faced criminal charges related to registration or voting, according to earlier reporting on the case.
No ruling was issued at Sunday's hearing. A hearing before Judge Carter in the district court remains part of the case's path, and any appeals-court decision will land with early voting already under way and Election Day on November 3.