Judge rejects Trump effort to block California ‘noncitizen’ ballots

Trump administration issues more than 100 subpoenas across 13 states as search for alleged noncitizen voters ramps up.

Workers prepare mail ballots to be scanned for counting in Orange County, California, on October 28, 2026 [Apu Gomes/Getty Images via AFP]

A United States judge has rejected a Department of Justice request to temporarily halt California from counting mail ballots from a list of 20,000 alleged noncitizens just six days before the country’s midterm elections.

US District Judge David Carter’s ruling on Wednesday came as US President Donald Trump expands efforts to search for alleged noncitizen voters, with subpoenas issued in at least 13 states.

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“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,” Carter wrote on Wednesday.

The judge, a 1998 appointee of Democratic President Bill Clinton, said the Justice Department’s last-minute request to exclude more than 20,000 ballots ran afoul of “longstanding constitutional principles mandating that states have control over their elections”.

The Justice Department swiftly appealed the decision to the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals and did not immediately respond to requests for comment by the Reuters news agency.

The Justice Department filed the lawsuit on October 15, a rare intervention in the voting process weeks before Tuesday’s election, when voters will choose which party controls Congress as well as their state and local representatives.

US President Donald Trump attends a campaign rally in the state of Ohio, where incumbent Republicans are fighting to keep key federal and state posts, on October 28, 2026 [Kevin Lamarque/Reuters]

Escalating efforts from Trump

The decision marks the latest setback in Trump’s effort to expand the federal government’s role in elections ahead of the legislative midterms, as his Republican Party fights to retain control of both houses of Congress.

The Trump administration issued more than 100 subpoenas demanding records on tens of thousands of voters in at least 13 states , both Republican- and Democratic-leaning.

Most of the subpoenas Reuters documented were issued to state and local election officials in the past three months, though some date to the start of the year. Many were previously unreported, revealing a federal effort to identify potential noncitizen voters that is broader than publicly known.

It is illegal for noncitizens to vote in US federal elections. Legal experts say the records could be used to contest close midterm results, despite scant evidence that noncitizen voting is widespread.

Get-out-the-vote effort in Minneapolis, Minnesota on October 28, 2026, six days before the election [Stephen Maturen/Getty Images via AFP]

‘Deeply flawed process’

Also on Wednesday, Democracy Docket, a US media platform that tracks election litigation, reported that the Department of Justice list of alleged noncitizen voters “appears to have been created using a deeply flawed process” that could disenfranchise US citizen voters beyond California.

In a court filing, a government whistleblower revealed that voters were being scrutinised nationwide, not just in California, as part of the federal government’s “Unlawful Voter Initiative” investigation, the group reported. The whistleblower warned that “the current process is knowingly sweeping known US citizens in as potentially ‘unlawful voters'”.

California has said the state’s safeguards against noncitizen voting are robust. It said the Justice Department’s assertions relied on “suspect data” and that complying with its demands would risk disenfranchising eligible voters. Democracy Docket reported that in Los Angeles County, one in four voters on the “noncitizen” list were born in the US.

特朗普政府在13个州发出100多份传票，加大力度搜寻涉嫌非公民选民。

2026年10月28日，加利福尼亚州奥兰治县，工作人员准备扫描邮寄选票进行计票。[Apu Gomes/Getty Images via AFP]

距离美国中期选举仅剩六天之际，一名美国法官驳回了司法部提出的暂时停止加州统计来自 2 万名被指控为非公民的邮寄选票的请求。

美国地区法官大卫·卡特周三做出裁决之际，美国总统唐纳德·特朗普正在扩大搜寻涉嫌非公民选民的力度，至少在 13 个州发出了传票。

美国法官裁定特朗普政府使用选民数据违法（共3条，第1条）

特朗普政府就加州选民名册上存在非公民一事起诉加州（共3条，此为第2条）

图3（共3张）：美国“反对国王”集会敦促中期选举选民提前投票

卡特周三写道：“在美国历史上，联邦政府从未在选举前夕试图胁迫州和地方政府放弃其宪法规定的选举程序，并屈服于行政部门的意志。”

这位法官是民主党总统比尔·克林顿于 1998 年任命的，他表示，司法部在最后一刻要求排除 20000 多张选票的做法违反了“长期以来宪法规定的各州对其选举拥有控制权的原则”。

美国司法部迅速向第九巡回上诉法院提起上诉，但尚未回应路透社的置评请求。

司法部于 10 月 15 日提起诉讼，这是在周二选举前几周对投票过程进行的一次罕见干预。届时，选民将决定哪个党派控制国会以及他们的州和地方代表。

2026年10月28日，美国总统唐纳德·特朗普在俄亥俄州参加竞选集会，该州现任共和党人正在努力保住重要的联邦和州级职位。[凯文·拉马克/路透社]

特朗普的行动不断升级

这一决定标志着特朗普在立法中期选举前扩大联邦政府在选举中的作用的努力遭遇了最新挫折，与此同时，他的共和党正在努力保住对国会两院的控制权。

特朗普政府发出 100 多份传票，要求提供至少 13 个州（包括共和党倾向州和民主党倾向州）数万名选民的记录。

路透社记录的大部分传票是在过去三个月内发给州和地方选举官员的，但也有一些可以追溯到年初。许多传票此前未被报道，揭示了联邦政府一项旨在识别潜在非公民选民的行动，其范围比公众所知的要广。

非公民在美国联邦选举中投票属于违法行为。法律专家表示，尽管几乎没有证据表明非公民投票现象普遍存在，但这些记录可能会被用来质疑中期选举的胶着结果。

2026年10月28日，明尼苏达州明尼阿波利斯市，在选举前六天，举行了选民动员活动。[Stephen Maturen/Getty Images via AFP]

“存在严重缺陷的流程”

周三，追踪选举诉讼的美国媒体平台 Democracy Docket 报道称，司法部公布的所谓非公民选民名单“似乎是通过一个存在严重缺陷的程序创建的”，这可能会剥夺加利福尼亚州以外美国公民选民的选举权。

据该组织报道，一名政府举报人在提交给法院的文件中披露，联邦政府的“非法选民调查计划”正在全国范围内审查选民，而不仅仅是加利福尼亚州。该举报人警告说，“目前的程序正在蓄意将已知的美国公民纳入潜在的‘非法选民’名单”。

加州方面表示，该州针对非公民投票的保障措施十分完善。加州称，司法部的说法依赖于“可疑数据”，并表示如果满足司法部的要求，可能会导致符合资格的选民被剥夺投票权。据“民主档案”（Democracy Docket）报道，在洛杉矶县，“非公民”名单上的选民中，有四分之一出生于美国。