A federal judge refused to force California to set aside mailed ballots from more than 20,000 people the Justice Department says are noncitizens. In a 26-page order issued late Wednesday, U.S. District Judge David Carter said Washington cannot dictate how California counts its votes. The judge, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, opened by referring back to Ronald Reagan, who called the right to vote the crown jewel of American liberties. Granting the request would upend a vote already in progress, scare off the people running it, and discard ballots citizens had lawfully cast, he wrote.
Congress never handed the executive branch the power it was claiming, the judge found. The criminal statute the department leaned on makes it a crime for a noncitizen to vote, but says nothing about forcing states to segregate ballots or stop counting. A separate law bars systematic removals from the rolls inside 90 days of an election, and he said temporary segregation amounts to the same thing. If prosecutors have evidence someone voted illegally, he wrote, the remedy is an indictment. He noted the department charged 28 people the same day it asked him for the emergency order.
