Overview
- Judges on a three-judge 9th U.S. Circuit panel sharply questioned Justice Department lawyers during a rare weekend oral argument on Sunday about a request to separate thousands of mail ballots tied to a federal list of roughly 20,000 registrants.
- The Justice Department sued in Los Angeles on October 15 and filed an emergency appeal asking courts to withhold counting of any ballots matched to the federal list until citizenship can be verified.
- Circuit Judge Mark Bennett said the relief the DOJ seeks appears to conflict with the Constitution’s Elections Clause, which gives states primary control over how they run elections.
- Election officials and voting-rights groups have pushed back, saying the federal list was produced by cross-matching commercial and immigration data that has produced false positives in the past and that counties cannot reliably verify citizenship or surrender sensitive voter information on short notice.
- If courts reject the DOJ’s bid, counties will likely continue counting ballots already processed; if courts grant it, the order could delay certification, heighten confusion at the polls, and chill participation in immigrant communities.