Federal Courts: California Ballot Counting Proceeds Despite DOJ Challenge

A federal judge in Los Angeles allowed California to continue counting mail ballots from voters flagged by the Justice Department for the Nov. 3 midterm elections.

The Department of Justice sought a temporary restraining order on Oct. 15 to stop the state from counting ballots from more than 20,000 registered voters. The administration believes these individuals are likely noncitizens. The department did not specify how many of those flagged had actually submitted a ballot.

US District Judge David Carter issued the decision after a Tuesday hearing. His ruling follows a Monday decision by a federal appeals court that rejected an emergency request to block the counting before Carter could rule. The Justice Department did not provide further details on the number of submitted ballots in that filing.

California officials argued the state’s safeguards against noncitizen voting are robust. The state said the department’s claims relied on suspect data. Officials warned that meeting the federal demands could disenfranchise eligible voters.

President Donald Trump has pushed to widen the federal government’s role in elections. He has described noncitizen voting as widespread, although multiple studies and state audits have found it to be rare. The administration has also moved to intervene in two other states. In Alaska, the department asked a judge to block certification of results if the Republican incumbent senator loses by a narrow margin. The state wants the case dismissed. In Washington, the department sent a letter on Monday asking officials not to count ballots from 400 voters it said may not be citizens.

California has 52 seats in the House of Representatives. The state had 23 million registered voters as of December 2025. Washington state had 5 million registered voters as of 2024. Voting rights activists have warned that federal methods for checking state voter lists risk wrongly flagging naturalized citizens for removal from the rolls.