20,000 Ballots Face a Court Test Tuesday After California Resists a 48-Hour Review

Federal prosecutors gave California election offices 48 hours to confirm citizenship status for about 20,000 ballots, a window that closed without compliance from some counties and pushed the dispute into court. An appeals court is set to hear the matter on Tuesday, two days after the date of this report and less than two weeks before the midterms.

The sequence moved quickly. Federal prosecutors sent the request to counties, which state officials did not answer in the timeframe given, citing the approaching election. That non-response started the legal fight now before the court. California Attorney General Rob Bonta said Saturday that the Justice Department was acting at Donald Trump's direction. "It is once again the United States Department of Justice politicizing and weaponizing the law to attack its enemies, and it is completely improper," Bonta told MS Now.

The list itself is in dispute. At a press conference, Bonta said his office received names with no stated basis for treating any of them as ineligible. "If they have such information, we would be happy to review it, but they've provided none," he said. Election workers have said the review could remove eligible voters from the rolls, and Los Angeles officials said this week that a high percentage of the people named were born in the United States.

Governor Gavin Newsom wrote on social media that the department sent counties names of people who never voted and voters from the wrong county, which he called an "Absolute clown show!" Congressman Pete Aguilar, whose district covers south-west San Bernardino county, wrote that "Voter intimidation has no place in our democracy."

The Justice Department defended the request as a security measure. "We are asking each county election official to commit to working with us by providing the necessary information for DHS to quickly verify citizenship status," the department said. "With their help, we can ensure the most secure election in California history."

Federal prosecutors have also charged 28 foreign nationals with registering to vote fraudulently. First assistant US attorney Bill Essayli said the cases show that "California is mailing ballots to noncitizens, and they are refusing to comply with federal law, which makes it a crime for noncitizens to vote." The defendants are lawful permanent residents, who are not citizens and cannot vote in federal elections.

The appeals court takes up the case on Tuesday.