Judge blocks Trump bid to hold 20,000 California mail-in ballots

Voters in California will continue to have their mail-in ballots processed under the standard timeline after a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from halting the count of 20,000 specific ballots. The decision removes a potential hurdle for election officials who are already managing a high volume of mail-in votes in the final week before the election.

The administration filed the lawsuit asking a district court to withhold ballots from individuals it believed were likely non-citizens. The government did not present hard evidence that these 20,000 people lacked citizenship, relying instead on probabilistic assessments. With early voting already underway, California election officials stated that 500,000 ballots had been processed during the current week. They argued that identifying and separating these specific ballots from the larger pool would be nearly impossible.

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter denied the request on the grounds that the move would disrupt an election already in progress. Carter wrote that the administration's plan "would 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 emphasized that eroding trust in the democratic process causes lasting harm that is difficult to repair.

The judge further noted that if the executive branch could discount votes based on unproven allegations, the integrity of the democracy would be in danger. Carter stated that the court declined to participate in a process that would segregate votes and threaten an ongoing election. His ruling effectively keeps the 20,000 ballots in the active processing stream alongside the rest of the state's mail-in votes.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli defended the lawsuit's merits on social media following the ruling. He argued that every day more ballots are processed by election officials, creating an ongoing emergency that disenfranchises American citizens through dilution. Essayli maintained that the risk of non-citizen voting justified the legal intervention, despite the lack of definitive proof for the specific group of voters in question.

This case is part of a series of lawsuits filed by the Trump administration in recent weeks across multiple states. The Department of Justice previously asked Washington state to withhold 400 ballots over similar non-citizen voting concerns. The DOJ also filed a lawsuit against Alaska to prevent the certification of the vote if the Republican candidate does not win. These actions have occurred while the administration continues to litigate over voter fraud allegations in other jurisdictions.

The administration has indicated it will appeal Carter's ruling. An appeals court had previously declined to rule on the case because Carter had not yet issued his decision. That court appeared skeptical of the administration's arguments, suggesting that an immediate reversal was unlikely. The denial allows California to proceed with its standard counting procedures without the administrative delay of separating a specific subset of mail-in ballots.