The San Francisco-based ninth US circuit court of appeals on Monday rejected a request from the Justice Department to block California from counting mail ballots from more than 20,000 registered voters. The federal government had alleged that these individuals are likely noncitizens and sought to force state election officials to set aside and verify their ballots.
The court's decision turned away the Trump administration's efforts to segregate these mail-in ballots, stating that a lower-court judge should hear the dispute first. During the proceedings, the appeals panel expressed skepticism regarding the claims of noncitizen voting.
This legal setback occurs as the Trump administration has made the identification of noncitizen voters a priority this year, despite such voting being exceptionally rare. The ruling comes ahead of the November 3 midterm elections, in which Republicans are fighting to retain control of Congress.