Appeals Court Rejects DOJ Push to Set Aside 20,000 California Ballots Days Before Midterms

October 30, 2026 — A federal appeals court on Friday rejected the Justice Department’s latest emergency request to force California to separate mail ballots linked to more than 20,000 registered voters federal officials suspect may not be U.S. citizens. The new ruling keeps California’s existing ballot-counting procedures in place as the November 3 midterm election approaches.

The decision by a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit marks a new development after U.S. District Judge David O. Carter separately refused to grant the government’s request earlier this week. It does not end the underlying legal dispute, and the federal government may seek further relief.

What changed Friday

On Wednesday, the federal district court denied the Justice Department’s emergency application. The government continued pressing its case at the appellate level. On Friday, a 2-1 Ninth Circuit panel rejected the attempt to make California hold back the disputed ballots, according to the court’s October 30 order and reporting by Reuters and the Associated Press.

The appeals court’s action is important because the government had sought immediate intervention before ballots are fully processed. The panel declined to require a last-minute change that state officials say could interfere with their ability to count votes accurately and on time. The court did not certify that every voter on the government’s list is eligible; it rejected the particular emergency remedy being requested.

Why the Justice Department wants ballots separated

The Justice Department says federal immigration and homeland-security agencies compared California voter-registration information with other records and identified more than 20,000 people they believe may be noncitizens. It argues that ballots from people whose eligibility is in question should be isolated until citizenship can be verified.

Federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal elections. But a person’s appearance on a government-generated list is not proof that they are ineligible or that they voted. The federal government has not publicly established that all 20,000-plus people it flagged are noncitizens, and California officials have challenged the reliability of the matching methods.

The Justice Department argues that separating potentially unlawful ballots before they are combined with others would protect eligible voters from having their votes diluted. State and county election officials counter that the government’s request comes too late in an election already underway and could result in eligible voters’ ballots being delayed or excluded.

The judges disagreed over the risks

The majority pointed to the danger of disruption and disenfranchisement from abruptly changing ballot procedures. California officials have said that once verified mail ballots are separated from their identifying envelopes and processed, it may not be possible to identify and pull out individual ballots after the fact.

Judge Patrick Bumatay dissented, arguing that temporarily segregating disputed ballots would preserve an opportunity to verify voter eligibility without automatically canceling votes. His view reflects the government’s concern about enforcing the prohibition on noncitizen voting. The majority, however, did not agree that the requested emergency intervention was justified.

Why this matters before Election Day

The ruling arrives just days before the November 3 midterms, when election offices are handling large volumes of mail ballots. Federal courts generally weigh the potential disruption caused by changes to election procedures close to voting day. In this case, California warned that the proposed segregation process could be impractical for ballots already processed and could affect voters whose citizenship has not been questioned through ordinary state procedures.

The broader legal fight involves competing claims about election integrity, federal enforcement authority and voters’ rights. The Justice Department says it is trying to prevent illegal votes. California and voting-rights advocates argue that unverified data and rushed demands can wrongly identify eligible citizens and undermine orderly election administration. Neither side’s allegations about individual voters should be treated as established facts without evidence.

What happens next

The Justice Department could pursue another emergency appeal, potentially before the U.S. Supreme Court. Until a court issues a different order, Friday’s decision leaves California without the ballot-separation requirement the government requested. This is a ruling about the requested emergency procedure, not a final determination of the citizenship status of everyone on the federal list.

Reporting: 730 BOOM Radio. The October 30 Ninth Circuit order and the Justice Department’s October 15 statement were reviewed alongside independent Reuters and Associated Press reporting published October 30. This is a follow-up to the district court ruling reported earlier in the week.

Featured image: Archival photograph of the Richard H. Chambers U.S. Court of Appeals Building in Pasadena, one of the Ninth Circuit’s courthouses. General Services Administration / Wikimedia Commons, U.S. public domain. This image does not depict the hearing or any election activity.