LOS ANGELES: A US federal judge has rejected the Trump administration’s attempt to prevent more than 20,000 California voters from having their ballots counted, describing the move as brazen interference in the electoral process ahead of next week’s midterm elections.
US District Judge David O. Carter on Wednesday refused to grant the Department of Justice’s request to set aside the ballots of voters whose citizenship status the federal government questioned, siding with California’s Democratic-led government.
The ruling comes days before the November 3 elections, in which President Donald Trump’s Republican Party faces the risk of losing its control of Congress.
The case has intensified political tensions, with Democratic leaders accusing the administration of using threats and intimidation against state and local officials ahead of the vote.
In his decision, Carter said the federal government had never before sought, on the eve of an election, to pressure state and local authorities into abandoning their constitutional election procedures and complying with the executive branch’s demands.
“Constitutional rights and our democracy are at stake. The public interest favours their protection,” the judge wrote. He also ruled that voters on California’s electoral rolls must not be deprived of their fundamental rights on the basis of unsubstantiated allegations arising from procedures prone to uncertainty and errors.
The Justice Department had initially accused California of having around 190,000 ineligible voters on its electoral rolls. It subsequently revised the figure to approximately 20,000 and filed an emergency lawsuit about 10 days ago, after early voting had begun, seeking to prevent the state from sending ballots to those individuals.
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A similar dispute emerged in neighbouring Nevada, where the administration’s allegations were substantially reduced following verification.
Federal officials had initially identified around 16,000 suspected non-citizen voters in Nevada. That figure fell to 185 after verification and was eventually reduced to zero.
Carter said the Justice Department’s actions reflected what he described as a broader, ongoing pattern of attempted election interference by federal officials.
Trump, who has continued to dispute the outcome of his 2020 election defeat to Joe Biden, has repeatedly raised concerns about potential fraud in the 2026 midterm elections.
However, studies have consistently found that voter fraud in the United States is rare and occurs at levels too small to affect election outcomes.
