US court rules against Trump administration in California voting case

US appeals court blocks government effort to stop California from tabulating ballots from list of alleged non-citizens.

President Donald Trump has expressed scepticism about the integrity of California's mail-in voting system [Mike Blake/Reuters]

A United States appeals court has ruled against the administration of President Donald Trump in its bid to block the state of California from counting certain mail-in ballots this election cycle.

In a decision on Monday, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request from the government to sequester roughly 20,000 mailed ballots ahead of the November 3 midterm election.

list 1 of 3 US appeals court sceptical of Trump’s lawsuit over California voter rolls

list 2 of 3 All you need to know about US midterms 2026

list 3 of 3 US judge blocks federal operations seeking to identify non-citizen voters

The Trump administration had asserted that the ballots were sent to people who are “likely” non-citizens.

But it has not publicly revealed how it created its list or determined that the voters identified upon it were ineligible due to their citizenship status.

In a two-to-one decision, the appeals court said the Trump administration had not given lower courts enough time to review the case. It therefore declined to stop California’s ballot tabulation.

The court’s majority also underscored that election administration was the state’s responsibility under the US Constitution.

The Trump administration was asking “the federal court to dictate to a state legislature a matter squarely within the state’s traditional domain”, Judge Gabriel Sanchez wrote in his opinion.

Sanchez also warned that granting the Trump administration’s petition would be “inviting disorder and confusion for voters and election officials alike”.

The Trump administration filed its lawsuit against California on October 15, less than three weeks before the midterm vote on November 3.

California is a Democrat-led state, and Trump, a Republican leader, has repeatedly made unfounded claims that the state is prone to “cheating” in its elections.

The case is currently being weighed in a lower court, with a hearing scheduled for Tuesday.

But the Trump administration sought an expedited decision from the appeals court, pointing to the looming election date.

The midterm elections are critical to determine which political party holds power in Congress.

Currently, the Republican Party maintains slim majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, but experts project the Democratic Party is on track to make significant gains, flipping one or both chambers.

In the lead-up to the midterms, Trump has raised the prospect of non-citizen voting as a threat to election integrity.

But experts say such voting is rare. California officials have likewise cast doubt on the administration’s claims of 20,000 ballots going to “likely non-citizens”, and they framed the administration’s lawsuit as an effort to interfere in the voting process.

“At best, this litigation is a reckless political stunt,” lawyers for California Secretary of State Shirley Weber said in a court filing on October 20. “At worst, it threatens to disenfranchise thousands of Californians this election.”

Trump’s Department of Justice has sued 30 states and Washington, DC, for complete access to voter rolls that include sensitive personal data.

It has argued that releasing such information is necessary to prevent alleged voter fraud.

But the department has lost 26 of those cases thus far, with opponents successfully arguing that such manoeuvres could scare away voters and interfere with state election administration.

The Trump administration has yet to win any of the 30 cases.

Despite claims to the contrary by Trump and his allies, cases of illegal voting, including by non-citizens, are few and far between. Non-citizens are barred from participating in federal elections in all 50 states in the US.

In July, an investigation by the news service Reuters found only 129 cases of noncitizens being charged by federal authorities with illegal voting since 1996.

Many of those cases involved mistakes, like administrative errors or individuals being uncertain of voting rules, rather than fraudulent intent.

Voting rights advocates have also pointed to flaws in how the Trump administration has identified potential non-citizen voting, signalling some eligible voters may be disenfranchised as part of its efforts.

Immigration agents under Trump have been assigned to ferret out non-citizen voters, in some cases knocking on doors to inquire about the citizenship status of the residents inside.

Last week, the administration charged 28 immigrants in California with illegally voting.

But reporting from the Los Angeles Times found that some of the accused reacted to the charges with confusion and maintained that they never registered to vote.

Trump has a history of promoting false claims of election fraud in order to justify greater federal influence over the voting process.

In 2020, he lost his bid for re-election to Democrat Joe Biden, but he denied his defeat, instead blaming vote “rigging”. That claim prompted some of Trump’s supporters to storm the US Capitol on January 6, 2023, in an apparent effort to halt the election certification.

美国上诉法院阻止政府阻止加州统计所谓非公民名单上的选票。

美国总统唐纳德·特朗普对加州邮寄投票系统的公正性表示怀疑。[迈克·布莱克/路透社]

美国一家上诉法院驳回了唐纳德·特朗普总统政府阻止加利福尼亚州统计本届选举周期中某些邮寄选票的请求。

周一，美国第九巡回上诉法院驳回了政府提出的在 11 月 3 日中期选举前扣押约 2 万张邮寄选票的请求。

美国三家上诉法院之一对特朗普关于加州选民登记册的诉讼持怀疑态度

列表 2/3：关于 2026 年美国中期选举你需要知道的一切

美国法官阻止联邦政府试图识别非公民选民的行动（共3例，此为第3例）

特朗普政府曾声称，这些选票被寄给了“很可能”不是公民的人。

但该机构尚未公开透露其如何创建名单，也未确定名单上的选民因公民身份而失去资格。

上诉法院以二比一的投票结果裁定，特朗普政府没有给予下级法院足够的时间来审查此案。因此，法院拒绝停止加州的计票工作。

法院多数法官还强调，根据美国宪法，选举管理是各州的责任。

法官加布里埃尔·桑切斯在他的意见书中写道，特朗普政府要求“联邦法院对一个完全属于该州传统管辖范围的事项向州立法机构发号施令”。

桑切斯还警告说，批准特朗普政府的请求将“给选民和选举官员带来混乱和骚动”。

特朗普政府于 10 月 15 日对加利福尼亚州提起诉讼，距离 11 月 3 日的中期选举投票不到三周。

加利福尼亚州是民主党领导的州，而共和党领导人特朗普一再毫无根据地声称该州容易在选举中“作弊”。

该案目前正在下级法院审理，听证会定于周二举行。

但特朗普政府以选举日临近为由，要求上诉法院加快审理此案。

中期选举对于决定哪个政党掌控国会至关重要。

目前，共和党在众议院和参议院都保持着微弱多数，但专家预测民主党有望取得重大进展，夺取其中一个或两个议院的控制权。

在中期选举前夕，特朗普将非公民投票的可能性视为对选举公正性的威胁。

但专家表示，这种投票方式十分罕见。加州官员同样对政府关于有2万张选票流向“可能非公民”的说法表示怀疑，并将政府的诉讼描述为试图干预投票进程。

加州州务卿雪莉·韦伯的律师在10月20日提交的法庭文件中表示：“往好了说，这场诉讼是一场鲁莽的政治噱头；往坏了说，它有可能剥夺数千名加州选民在本次选举中的投票权。”

特朗普的司法部已起诉 30 个州和华盛顿特区，要求完全获取包含敏感个人数据的选民名册。

该机构辩称，公布此类信息对于防止所谓的选民欺诈是必要的。

但到目前为止，该部门已输掉了其中 26 起案件，反对者成功地辩称，此类举措可能会吓跑选民并干扰州选举管理。

特朗普政府在这30起案件中尚未赢得任何一起。

尽管特朗普及其盟友声称情况恰恰相反，但包括非公民在内的非法投票案例寥寥无几。美国所有50个州都禁止非公民参加联邦选举。

7 月，路透社的一项调查发现，自 1996 年以来，只有 129 起非公民因非法投票而被联邦当局起诉的案例。

这些案件中有很多是行政错误或个人对投票规则不确定等失误造成的，而不是出于欺诈意图。

投票权倡导者还指出，特朗普政府在识别潜在的非公民投票方面存在缺陷，这表明一些符合资格的选民可能会因此被剥夺投票权。

特朗普执政期间，移民官员被指派去搜捕非公民选民，在某些情况下，他们甚至会敲门询问屋内居民的公民身份。

上周，政府指控加州28名移民非法投票。

但《洛杉矶时报》的报道发现，一些被告对指控感到困惑，并坚称他们从未登记投票。

特朗普曾多次散布选举舞弊的虚假指控，以此为由要求联邦政府加大对投票过程的干预力度。

2020年，他竞选连任失败，败给了民主党候选人乔·拜登，但他否认败选，反而指责选举“舞弊”。这一说法促使一些特朗普的支持者于2023年1月6日冲击美国国会大厦，显然是为了阻止选举结果的认证。