A United States judge has rejected a Department of Justice request to temporarily halt California from counting mail ballots from a list of 20,000 alleged noncitizens just six days before the country’s midterm elections, according to Al Jazeera.

US District Judge David Carter’s ruling came as US President Donald Trump expands efforts to search for alleged noncitizen voters, with subpoenas issued in at least 13 states, Al Jazeera reported. According to the same source, the judge wrote that never before in American history had the federal government sought to coerce a state and local government to abandon their constitutional election procedures on the eve of an election.

Background

Al Jazeera reported that Judge Carter, a 1998 appointee of Democratic President Bill Clinton, stated that the Justice Department’s last-minute request to exclude more than 20,000 ballots ran afoul of longstanding constitutional principles mandating state control over elections. Reuters noted that the Justice Department filed the lawsuit on October 15, marking a rare intervention in the voting process weeks before Tuesday's election, where voters will choose which party controls Congress as well as state and local representatives.

According to Reuters, the Trump administration issued more than 100 subpoenas demanding records on tens of thousands of voters in at least 13 both Republican- and Democratic-leaning states. While some subpoenas date to the start of the year, most were issued in the past three months, revealing a broader federal effort than previously known. Legal experts told Reuters that the records could be used to contest close midterm results, despite scant evidence that noncitizen voting is widespread, and noted that it is illegal for noncitizens to vote in US federal elections.

Why it matters

For readers observing international developments, the legal battles surrounding electoral administration highlight the complex interplay between federal oversight and state authority in democratic systems. As reported by Al Jazeera and Reuters, ongoing legal challenges and administrative subpoenas leading up to legislative elections demonstrate how electoral integrity and voting procedures remain a central arena for political and legal contention.

What's next

According to Reuters, the Justice Department swiftly appealed the decision to the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals.