US judge rejects Trump admin interference in California midterm vote

A US District Judge rejected a request by the Justice Department on Wednesday to temporarily block California from counting mail ballots received from more than 20,000 registered voters. The Trump administration alleges these individuals are likely noncitizens. U.S. District Judge David Carter ruled that the request to segregate and exclude these ballots violates longstanding constitutional principles that grant states the authority to administer their own elections.

In a 26-page decision, Judge Carter wrote that the federal government's attempt to coerce state and local governments to abandon their election procedures is unprecedented in American history. He noted that if the relief had been granted, any political party could create chaos to disrupt the election process for their own political purposes.

California stated that its safeguards against noncitizen voting are robust and argued that the Justice Department's claims relied on suspect data. The state further contended that complying with the request would risk disenfranchising eligible voters. According to Le Monde English, Democratic Party leaders sued the administration over the request, accusing Republicans of using threats and intimidation against state and local officials.

Brief written by urgent.news from Le Monde English, Free Malaysia Today, The Hill, CBS News — 4 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.