Judge blocks Trump's move to set aside California mail ballots

A federal judge on Wednesday rejected the Trump administration's bid to require California election officials to separate out mail ballots received from roughly 20,000 people it claims are not U.S. citizens.

The decision from U.S. District Judge David Carter is the latest setback for the Trump administration in its efforts to exert more federal control over election administration just ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections, when voters will decide which party controls the House and Senate.

Carter said that the Justice Department's request for California to segregate and exclude more than 20,000 ballots violates 'longstanding constitutional principles' giving states the authority to administer their own elections.

Never before in American history has the federal government, on the eve of an election, sought to coerce a state and local government to abandon their own Constitutional elections procedures and bend to the will of the Executive Branch, the judge wrote in a 26-page decision.

If he granted the Trump administration the relief it sought, either political party could 'create chaos for their own political purpose to disrupt the election process,' Carter wrote.

Over 20,000 registered Californians would potentially lose the right that generations of Americans have fought to preserve, he said.

During a hearing a day earlier, Carter appeared skeptical of the government's arguments that thousands of ballots should be set aside and not counted while election workers verify they were cast by U.S. citizens.

I think there's always been an encouragement of people's right to vote, we the people, because when we exercise our right to vote, we exercise equality, Carter said.

The judge pressed the Justice Department as to why, rather than risk disenfranchising lawful voters, prosecutors can't instead pursue indictments after the election of those they believe voted illegally.

He noted the Justice Department can rely on the envelopes from returned ballots, which have identifying information, to show a noncitizen voted in violation of federal and state law.