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By Jennifer Radcliffe
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A federal judge denied a Department of Justice (DOJ) request to require California election officials to set aside about 20,000 ballots allegedly cast by noncitizens, calling the attempt a threat to democracy and demanding that they stop.
The federal government had asked for a temporary restraining order against California and Los Angeles County election officials to segregate ballots cast by potential noncitizens while litigation proceeds.
"If the Executive can discount votes and threaten an ongoing election due to unproven allegations, then our democracy is in danger," Judge David O. Carter of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California wrote in the order Wednesday. "Eroded trust in our democracy is irreparable. Once a vote is segregated, lasting harm has occurred."
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Newsweek reached out to the DOJ via email outside of business hours.
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The judge found the government had not demonstrated a likelihood of success on the merits of its claims and said the requested relief could "wreak havoc and disrupt the election that is already underway, create a chilling effect on election workers and voters alike, and discount the votes of United States citizens."
He also noted that the DOJ has filed at least 31 federal lawsuits seeking to obtain complete voter rolls and has prevailed in none.
Why the Judge Rejected the Request
In his ruling, Carter questioned whether the federal government had standing to pursue the requested relief and whether federal law provided a cause of action allowing the court to intervene in the manner sought by the DOJ.
The court also concluded that federal criminal laws prohibiting noncitizens from voting do not clearly override California's election procedures. According to the order, the government failed to establish that federal law preempts the state's ballot-counting processes or requires election officials to segregate ballots based on the government's voter list.
Carter further found that the government's evidence identifying the voters as noncitizens was not sufficiently reliable. The order cited concerns about inaccuracies in citizenship databases and noted that similar efforts to identify noncitizen voters have previously produced substantial numbers of false positives.
The judge also warned that changing election procedures while voting is already underway could create confusion for election officials and risk disenfranchising lawful voters.
A significant part of the ruling relied on what courts often call the "Purcell principle," derived from the Supreme Court's 2006 decision in Purcell v. Gonzalez. That doctrine generally discourages federal courts from making last-minute changes to election rules close to an election because such changes can create voter confusion and administrative problems.
Federal courts have repeatedly invoked the principle in disputes involving ballot procedures, voter eligibility rules and election administration. Carter said the DOJ's proposed remedy would require election officials to alter established procedures during an active election period, a step the court was unwilling to take.
Broader Dispute Over Noncitizen Voting
The case comes amid a broader national debate over noncitizen voting and election integrity.
Federal law bars noncitizens from voting in federal elections, and voting by noncitizens remains illegal. However, election experts and prior litigation have frequently centered on how to accurately identify noncitizens without mistakenly flagging eligible U.S. citizens, particularly naturalized citizens whose records may appear inconsistent across government databases.
Carter emphasized that if the federal government believes particular individuals voted unlawfully, criminal enforcement mechanisms already exist. Rather than requiring election officials to segregate thousands of ballots, the order states the government can investigate and prosecute specific violations where evidence supports doing so.
For now, the ruling allows California election officials to continue counting ballots under existing state procedures while the underlying lawsuit continues.
Why the DOJ Is Suing
The federal government provided California officials with a list of more than 20,000 names earlier this month and gave them 48 hours to review it. After California declined to carry out the requested measures by the DOJ's deadline, the department sued California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan.
According to the government's complaint, U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) compares voter-roll information with its internal data to identify possible matches between registered voters and people who may be noncitizens. A "high-confidence" match means multiple identifiers support what USCIS considers a strong link between the voter information and its records, the lawsuit says.
In an earlier response to Newsweek, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said federal agencies cross-referenced publicly available state voter-registration records with "known aliens" in federal systems, while commercial third-party data and other government data were used to supplement the public records, further verify identities and "eliminate false positives."
For high-confidence matches, investigators attempt to connect the voter information with an alien number in USCIS systems. They then search for evidence that the person has become a naturalized citizen or may have derived citizenship through their parents or other means.
USCIS ultimately sent Homeland Security Investigations a list of more than 20,000 people it believed were both registered to vote in California and likely noncitizens. After conducting its review, HSI "reasonably believes that around 20,000 noncitizens are registered to vote in California," the lawsuit says.
In a follow-up response to Newsweek, a DOJ spokesperson said the roughly 20,000 are individuals who have been "manually verified to date," adding: "That number can and will go up." The department did not say in its response that manual verification meant their noncitizen status had been definitively established.
Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Edward T. Cummins
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