Judge Rejects DOJ Bid to Freeze California Ballots From 20,000 Voters

A federal judge in Los Angeles denied the Justice Department's request to halt the counting of California mail ballots on Wednesday. The ruling allows the state to proceed with tabulating votes from a list of more than 20,000 registered voters that the Trump administration believes are likely noncitizens. The decision comes just days before the November 3 midterm elections.

US District Judge David Carter issued the order following a hearing held Tuesday in Los Angeles federal court. The Justice Department had filed its lawsuit on October 15, seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent officials from counting any ballots associated with the flagged individuals. This federal intervention is rare for an election so close to voting day.

The legal battle began with an emergency appeal to a federal appeals court on Monday. That court rejected the department's request to block the counting before Carter could issue his ruling. The Justice Department has not disclosed how many of the 20,000 flagged people have actually submitted mail ballots. California argued that the department's claims relied on suspect data and that stopping the count could disenfranchise eligible voters.

California is the most populous state in the Union and holds 52 seats in the House of Representatives. State records indicate the state had 23 million registered voters as of December 2025. President Donald Trump has focused his immigration crackdown on California, accusing the state of sanctuary policies that limit federal enforcement. He has repeatedly described noncitizen voting as widespread, a claim that multiple studies and state audits have characterized as rare.

The administration is pursuing similar strategies in two other states. In Alaska, the Justice Department asked a judge last week to block the certification of election results if the Republican incumbent senator loses by a narrow margin. The department alleges a candidate with a similar name on the ballot could confuse voters. In Washington state, the department sent a letter on Monday requesting that officials not count ballots from 400 voters it believes may not be citizens. Washington's top elections official said the timing of the request cast unfounded suspicion on the results.

Voting rights activists have warned that the federal government's methods for checking state voter lists risk wrongly flagging naturalized citizens. The Justice Department did not specify the exact number of naturalized citizens among the flagged voters in California or the other states. The next scheduled step is the official count of ballots in California following the election on November 3.