US Appeals Court Rejects Trump Bid to Discard California Ballots

A federal appeals court in the United States has turned down a request by President Donald Trump's administration to discard 20,000 ballots in California. The legal challenge centered on accusations regarding potential non-citizen voting in the upcoming midterm elections.

The ruling was delivered on Friday, leaving fewer than four days before the November 3 midterm polls. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that the administration's petition breached the United States Constitution and threatened to strip eligible citizens of their right to vote.

Appeals court blocks bid to remove thousands of California ballots ahead of elections.

According to the majority ruling by judges Mark Bennett and Gabriel Sanchez, the requested action would result not merely in ballot segregation, but ultimately in canceling votes and purging individuals from voter registries. A third judge, Patrick Bumatay, dissented and described the petition as reasonable.

The Trump administration initiated legal action against California on October 15, alleging that nearly 20,000 likely foreign nationals received mail-in ballots. Officials asserted these votes should be excluded from the count. However, the validity of the administration's compiled list and its assertions of widespread non-citizen voting faced substantial scrutiny. Federal authorities note that voting by non-citizens and general election fraud are extremely rare in the country.

Similar lists of alleged foreign voters distributed to states like Nevada and Washington were found to contain significant inaccuracies. In Nevada, local authorities reported that the administration's roster erroneously labeled citizens as non-citizens without a single correct name.

California, a Democratic stronghold holding 52 seats in the House of Representatives, has frequently faced accusations of electoral misconduct from Trump. Governor Gavin Newsom and other state leaders characterized the federal lawsuit as a politically motivated effort to generate distrust and suppress voter participation.

While non-citizen voting remains illegal across all fifty states and the Constitution grants states primary authority over administering elections, the dispute leaves ongoing questions about federal oversight and ballot integrity just days before polls open.

Why it matters

The 9th Circuit Court decision preserves the voting status of thousands of individuals in a critical state ahead of congressional elections. It reinforces the constitutional boundaries separating federal oversight from state-level election administration.