Ninth Circuit to Hear DOJ Bid to Set Aside 20,000 California Ballots

A federal appeals court will take up the Trump Justice Department’s emergency bid to set aside mail ballots tied to more than 20,000 people federal agencies have flagged as likely noncitizens registered to vote in California, with a remote hearing set for Sunday afternoon, just nine days before the Nov. 3 midterms.

A Ninth Circuit panel of Judges Mark Bennett, Patrick Bumatay and Gabriel Sanchez ordered oral argument by Zoom for Sunday, Oct. 25, at 1 p.m. Pacific time, with 30 minutes for each side, according to the court’s order as described by the Yellow Jacket Initiative and Democracy Docket. Bennett and Bumatay were appointed by President Donald Trump and Sanchez by President Joe Biden, Democracy Docket reported.

Local election officials across California are confused and frustrated after receiving letters from President Donald Trump's Justice Department demanding that county registrars sequester ballots that the federal government believes were sent to noncitizen voters ahead of the… pic.twitter.com/xIxBiic6xZ

— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) October 25, 2026

What DOJ is asking for

In its emergency motion, the Justice Department asked the appeals court to order the listed ballots set aside, “not to cancel” them, until citizenship can be checked, according to a review of the court record by the Yellow Jacket Initiative. The department has argued that once mail ballots are opened and counted, they can no longer be traced back to individual voters, which is why it wants them held now rather than challenged later.

Federal law already makes it a crime for noncitizens to vote in federal elections, and the motion cites that statute, 18 U.S.C. 611, as the basis for its request.

Letters to every county

The court fight comes as federal prosecutors pressed county officials directly. Letters sent Friday gave county registrars 48 hours to provide identifying information on voters the federal government suspects are noncitizens and to set aside ballots whose citizenship cannot be verified, PBS reported. The letters were signed by Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, according to PBS.

“Any election official who knowingly processes the ballot of a noncitizen is opening themselves to legal jeopardy,” Essayli said, according to PBS. The letters went out to nearly every county in the state, according to PBS and the Democratic Reporter, expanding a pressure campaign that had earlier focused on Los Angeles County.

California pushes back

California officials are fighting the demand. The letters seek sensitive information, including Social Security numbers, PBS reported. California Attorney General Rob Bonta accused the Justice Department of “politicizing and weaponizing the law to attack its enemies” in remarks to MS Now, according to The Guardian, and a Contra Costa County spokesperson called the 48-hour deadline “unenforceable,” the Democratic Reporter reported.

California and Los Angeles County argue the appeals court has no jurisdiction because the trial judge, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, has not yet ruled, according to Democracy Docket, which reported that Carter set his own hearing for Tuesday, Oct. 27. Los Angeles County said it checked a sample of names on the federal list and found 1 in 4 were born in the United States, Democracy Docket reported. The state indicated it would seek review by the full Ninth Circuit if the panel orders ballots held, according to the same report.

Why it matters

The Justice Department is not asking to throw out any ballot, only to hold the flagged ones until citizenship can be confirmed, according to its filing. California’s position is that the federal list is unreliable and the demand comes too late. With mail ballots already being counted, Sunday’s hearing could decide whether those ballots are checked before they become impossible to trace.

Daily Beltway will update this story when the panel rules.

Sources

Reporting by Daily Beltway.