Appeals Judges Scrutinize Bid to Block 20,000 California Ballots

WHO:

Los Angeles Times - Judge Patrick J. Bumatay focused on the harm caused when noncitizens vote and how California should handle objections to alleged noncitizen voters.

Los Angeles Times - State officials and voting-rights groups were preparing to defend against possible federal litigation challenging pivotal election results.

Los Angeles Times - The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel consisted of Judge Mark J. Bennett, appointed by President Trump; Circuit Judge Patrick J. Bumatay, also appointed by Trump; and Circuit Judge Gabriel P. Sanchez, appointed by President Biden.

Los Angeles Times - The Trump administration sought to stop California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean Logan from counting ballots cast by 20,000 voters whose citizenship the administration questioned.

Los Angeles Times - Justice Department attorney Matthew Donnelly argued for the administration. California Deputy Solicitor General Samuel P. Siegel and attorney Seth Waxman, representing Logan, opposed the request.

Los Angeles Times - Rick Hasen, director of UCLA School of Law’s Safeguarding Democracy Project, wrote that the court seemed “very likely to reject” the appeal.

Los Angeles Times - First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said federal authorities had “overwhelming evidence” that tens of thousands of noncitizens were registered to vote in California. The article also reported that federal prosecutors had charged 28 California legal permanent residents with election-related crimes, including illegally registering to vote.

WHAT:

FOX 13 Seattle - Washington automatically registers eligible residents when they apply for or renew a driver’s license; six other states had ballot measures this election cycle on whether only U.S. citizens may vote in local municipal elections, while Washington had no similar measure.

CNN - The 9th Circuit denied the Justice Department’s emergency appeal; the majority said the government’s claimed emergency was “at least in part” self-constructed because of its delay in filing suit and recognizing California’s ballot-processing schedule.

CNN - Judge Patrick Bumatay dissented from the decision.

NY Post - Federal officials and political parties were sending thousands of poll watchers to California amid the ballot dispute.

NY Post - Federal agents arrested 28 defendants in raids across California as part of an operation called “Operation Protect the Vote.”

NBC News - The Justice Department asked Washington state to set aside 400 ballots from voters it said may be noncitizens.

CNN - A 9th Circuit panel rejected the Justice Department’s emergency appeal, with Judge Mark Bennett and Judge Gabriel Sanchez concluding the court lacked authority to rule before the district court addressed the case. Judge Patrick Bumatay dissented.

CNN - The majority wrote: “The United States’s claimed emergency, at least in part, is a self-constructed one,” citing the government’s delay in suing and recognizing California’s ballot-processing schedule.

CNN - The ruling sent the case back to the U.S. District Court in California.

CBS News Politics - A federal appeals court dismissed the Justice Department’s effort to force California election officials to set aside ballots the Trump administration claimed may have been cast by noncitizens.

Los Angeles Times - Federal judges in dozens of states had rejected Justice Department lawsuits seeking states’ voter rolls; judges had also rejected multiple Trump executive orders seeking national voter ID and citizenship checks and an effort to authorize the U.S. Postal Service to vet mail ballots.

Los Angeles Times - The Justice Department had sued in Alaska, preemptively challenging a Democratic Senate win based on a third candidate having a name similar to the Republican incumbent.

Los Angeles Times - California voters had been voting since early October, and the state’s daily ballot-receipt totals were available online.

FOX 13 Seattle - Washington recorded 15 verified cases of noncitizen voting from 1982 through 2025, representing 0.000006% of all ballots cast.

FOX 13 Seattle - The Pew Research Center estimated that more than 28 million noncitizens lived in the United States in 2023. A Justice Department announcement identified 16 people nationwide charged with offenses related to noncitizen voting and voter eligibility.

FOX 13 Seattle - In Washington, voter registration records are cross-checked against Department of Licensing and Social Security Administration data. A registration mismatch may lead to provisional registration; the ballot is not counted until the voter provides valid identification.

Los Angeles Times - The commentary reported that the federal government’s original list of people it believed were illegally registered to vote contained 190,000 names before it was reduced to 20,000.

Los Angeles Times - The commentary said about 600,000 ballots had been opened in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles Times - The commentary reported that California’s daily ballot-receipt tallies are posted online by the secretary of State and that live camera feeds show ballot processing in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles Times - The commentary said the federal judge assigned to the case had promised to rule on the temporary restraining order request on Tuesday; federal lawyers then sought a ruling by Saturday afternoon.

Los Angeles Times - The commentary said a separate federal voting lawsuit in Washington, D.C., sought to block the government from creating national voter lists using information-gathering methods described by the plaintiffs as secretive.

NY Post - The article argued that “Voter ID is the only way to fix California’s broken election system.”

Los Angeles Times - During an hour-long emergency hearing, judges questioned the administration’s request to require California officials to set aside 20,000 ballots until voters could prove they were U.S. citizens. The panel issued no ruling; a decision was expected soon.

Los Angeles Times - Bennett questioned the appeal’s constitutionality and jurisdiction, noting that the state had authority to determine election procedures under the Elections Clause and that the district court had not yet assessed the facts or issued an order.

Los Angeles Times - Bennett asked, “How can we do that?” about issuing an injunction he said conflicted with California law, and said, “I don’t see how we have jurisdiction.”

Los Angeles Times - Sanchez questioned the origin and reliability of the administration’s voter list; Donnelly could not identify the third parties involved in providing its data.

Los Angeles Times - California officials said the list was inaccurate; Logan said a preliminary review of a subset found many people were U.S.-born, unregistered, or had never voted.

Los Angeles Times - More than 3 million people had cast ballots in California, including more than 500,000 in Los Angeles County.

WHERE:

CNN - The emergency appellate hearing was held via Zoom.

Los Angeles Times - The hearing was before the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals; the challenged ballots were in California, including Los Angeles County.

Los Angeles Times - A photograph caption described a voter casting a ballot in Boyle Heights on the first day of early voting in Los Angeles.

WHEN:

CNN - A district court hearing was scheduled for Tuesday at 4 p.m. ET.

FOX 13 Seattle - Federal prosecutors in Seattle scheduled a news conference for Monday at 2 p.m. to present data about alleged noncitizens on Washington voter rolls.

WHY:

Los Angeles Times - Independent election experts said the Justice Department’s intervention broke with its longstanding policy of avoiding election-related issues within 90 days of an election to reduce the risk of disenfranchising eligible voters.

Los Angeles Times - California Deputy Solicitor General Samuel P. Siegel called the claim that federal officials had only just learned ballots were being opened “absurd on its face.”

Los Angeles Times - State Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said the 28 voter-fraud charges showed “there is no widespread voter fraud.”

Los Angeles Times - The Justice Department said it had reason to believe the flagged ballots belonged to ineligible noncitizens and cited federal criminal law as authority to challenge their tabulation.

Los Angeles Times - California and local officials argued the request was illegal, disruptive, based on flawed data, and risked disenfranchising thousands of voters.

HOW:

Los Angeles Times - Attorneys for California, Shirley Weber and Dean Logan argued the administration’s demands were “a reckless political stunt” and relied on “mere suspicion, aroused by suspect data.”

CNN - The appeals court sent the case back to the U.S. District Court in California.

FOX 13 Seattle - Washington automatically registers eligible residents when they apply for or renew a driver’s license; a registration mismatch with licensing or Social Security records can result in provisional registration, with ballots counted only after valid identification is provided.

FOX 13 Seattle - Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said, “Voting fraud is incredibly rare,” and that Washington’s system is designed to identify and resolve problems swiftly.

Los Angeles Times - The Justice Department sued California, Weber, and Logan after Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter gave them 48 hours to set aside the ballots. The department later sent county election offices letters demanding segregation of ballots from the same 20,000 voters and threatening criminal punishment for noncompliance.

Los Angeles Times - California officials said existing challenge procedures require challengers to provide extraordinary proof. They argued that once mail ballots are removed from envelopes or in-person ballots are cast, voters cannot be associated with ballots or ballots resegregated.

Los Angeles Times - The department filed its lawsuit on Oct. 15, after the district court declined to rule immediately on its request for a temporary restraining order.

(UPDATED October 27, 2026 02:11 UTC)

The 9th Circuit rejected the Justice Department’s emergency bid to make California set aside ballots cast by 20,000 voters whose citizenship the administration questioned, sending the case back to a federal district court. The majority said the government had helped create its own emergency by delaying its lawsuit and failing to account for California’s ballot-processing schedule; Judge Patrick Bumatay dissented. The ruling came amid intensified scrutiny of alleged noncitizen voting, with federal officials and political parties sending poll watchers to California and federal agents arresting 28 people in election-related cases.

(UPDATED October 27, 2026 01:27 UTC)

A federal appeals court rejected the Justice Department’s emergency bid to make California set aside ballots cast by 20,000 voters whose citizenship the administration questioned, sending the case back to a district court. The majority said the government had helped create its own emergency by delaying its lawsuit and failing to account for California’s ballot-processing schedule, while Judge Patrick Bumatay dissented. The administration cited alleged noncitizen voting, but California officials disputed the voter list’s accuracy, and federal authorities also asked Washington state to set aside 400 ballots.

(UPDATED October 26, 2026 23:59 UTC)

A federal appeals court rejected the Justice Department’s emergency bid to make California set aside ballots from 20,000 voters whose citizenship the administration questioned, ruling that it lacked authority to intervene before a district court considered the case. The majority said the government had helped create its own emergency by delaying its lawsuit, while Judge Patrick Bumatay dissented; the case now returns to federal district court. California officials and voting-rights groups argued the government’s list was flawed and the request could disenfranchise eligible voters, while the Justice Department said it had evidence of ineligible registrations.

(UPDATED October 26, 2026 23:09 UTC)

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the Trump administration’s effort to make California set aside 20,000 ballots it said may have been cast by noncitizens. During an emergency hearing, judges questioned the government’s authority and the reliability of its voter list, while California officials argued that the data was flawed and the request could disenfranchise eligible voters. State officials and voting-rights groups are preparing to defend against possible federal challenges to election results.

(UPDATED October 26, 2026 22:06 UTC)

A 9th Circuit panel appeared skeptical of the Trump administration’s bid to force California to set aside ballots cast by 20,000 voters whose citizenship it questioned, with judges challenging the government’s legal authority and the reliability of its voter list; the panel issued no ruling. California officials said the list was flawed and warned that separating ballots after they are cast could disenfranchise voters, while the administration argued the ballots may belong to ineligible noncitizens. Separately, Washington recorded 15 verified cases of noncitizen voting from 1982 through 2025, and federal prosecutors there scheduled a news conference for Monday at 2 p.m. to present data about alleged noncitizens on voter rolls.

(UPDATED October 26, 2026 14:47 UTC)

A federal appeals panel sharply questioned the Trump administration’s bid to make California set aside ballots from 20,000 voters whose citizenship it disputes, with judges raising concerns about the case’s legal basis and the reliability of the government’s list. California officials say the list is inaccurate and warn that separating ballots could violate state law and disenfranchise voters; Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan said an initial review found many flagged people were U.S.-born, unregistered, or had never voted. The panel issued no ruling, and the Justice Department says federal law allows it to challenge ballots it believes were cast by ineligible noncitizens.

(UPDATED October 26, 2026 04:11 UTC)

A federal appeals panel questioned the Trump administration’s effort to block California from counting ballots cast by 20,000 voters whose citizenship it disputes. During an emergency hearing, the judges challenged the legal basis for setting aside the votes, and one said he did not see how the court had jurisdiction. The panel issued no ruling, but a decision was expected soon. The administration says federal law allows it to challenge ballots it believes were cast by ineligible noncitizens. California and Los Angeles County officials say the voter list is inaccurate and the request could disenfranchise eligible voters. County officials reported that an initial review found many people on the list were U.S.-born, unregistered, or had never voted. The Justice Department sued after demanding that officials segregate the ballots, warning of criminal penalties for noncompliance. More than 3 million people had already voted statewide, including over 500,000 in Los Angeles County.