California judge denies Trump DOJ request to segregate alleged noncitizen ballots

A federal judge in California on Wednesday refused the Trump administration’s request to segregate 20,000 mail-in ballots from individuals it alleges are noncitizens. “This request violates longstanding constitutional principles mandating that states have control over their elections,” U.S. District Judge David Carter wrote. “If Plaintiff’s last-minute request for relief were granted, either party could create chaos for their own political purposes to disrupt the election process.” What the administration was asking for, he wrote, “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 also questioned whether the government’s claims of over 20,000 noncitizen voters were accurate.

“Given the vagueness of Plaintiff’s descriptions of its procedures and the unreliability of its similar claims in other states, the Court cannot conclude that Plaintiff’s process is credible,” Carter wrote, pointing to similar allegations the administration had made in a neighboring state. “In Nevada, DHS initially identified up to 15,903 registered voters as noncitizens based on ‘high-confidence’ matches, but later reduced that number to 6,218, and then to 185 after conducting its manual review. Nevada officials later confirmed that all 185 individuals were citizens,” the judge wrote. “Had Nevada officials accepted Plaintiff’s allegations there as true, 185 citizens would have been deprived of