U.S. court rejects Justice Department's request to withhold counting of 20,000 mail-in votes in California

Ministry of Justice "may not be a U.S. citizen"... Court raises questions, “causing election chaos”

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Seungwook Kim = A U.S. court rejected the Justice Department's request to withhold the counting of mail-in ballots from 20,000 people suspected of not being U.S. citizens in California.

According to the Associated Press on the 26th (local time), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2 to 1 to reject the Justice Department's request for a preliminary injunction requiring California election authorities to separate and withhold the counting of ballots from 20,000 ballots identified by the federal government as suspected non-citizens ahead of the midterm elections on November 3.

Previously, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit on the 15th, claiming that the California state government did not take action even though it was suspected that 20,000 non-U.S. citizens were registered to vote in the midterm elections.

The request was to withhold the counting of mail-in ballots until the identities of these 20,000 people were confirmed.

The court's decision once again puts the brakes on the Donald Trump administration's attempts to strengthen federal control over state election administration.

The judges who wrote the majority opinion pointed out that separating ballots while voting is already in progress could violate voters' right to vote and cause election confusion.

Additionally, questions were raised as to whether the 20,000 people presented by the Ministry of Justice were really non-citizens.

In data submitted to the court, Los Angeles (LA) election authorities said that after conducting a random survey of voters designated by the Justice Department, it was confirmed that the majority were born in the United States.

The judge who wrote the minority opinion argued that screening out potentially illegal votes was the minimum measure to protect the fairness of the election.

The Federal District Court for the Southern District of California, which took over the case with this dismissal, plans to hold a trial on the 27th and rehear both sides' positions.