Judge Rejects Bid to Set Aside 20,000 California Ballots as Early Vote Tops 39 Million

October 29, 2026 · Category: Field & Elections

Five days before the Nov. 3 midterms, the Justice Department's push to hold back ballots from voters it suspects are not citizens ran into a wall in California. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter denied the department's request for a temporary restraining order that would have stopped state and Los Angeles County officials from processing ballots tied to more than 20,000 people on a federal list, AP reported. "Once a vote is segregated, lasting harm has occurred," Carter wrote, warning the request would "wreak havoc" on an election already underway. The administration said it would appeal, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The 26-page order lays out the timeline that worried the court. The list arrived on Oct. 13 on a thumb drive, after Los Angeles County had already mailed about 5.9 million vote-by-mail ballots and processed more than 331,000, and officials were given 48 hours to review it. County officials said the list included addresses from across the state and came with no method for verifying anyone's citizenship. NPR noted that a preliminary county analysis found many people on the list did not have active registrations. Carter pointed to existing remedies instead, including prosecution of individuals and California's own procedures for cancelling ineligible registrations.

Washington is next in line. Federal prosecutors there gave Secretary of State Steve Hobbs until noon Wednesday to set aside ballots from 405 people they say Homeland Security identified as noncitizens, and warned they would otherwise seek emergency relief, CBS News reported. Hobbs refused in a letter that day, saying a preliminary review found the list "includes United States citizens and is not reliable," KOMO News reported. Reuters described the California ruling as the latest setback to the administration's effort to expand the federal role in elections, in a report carried by the Lufkin Daily News.

All of this is happening while turnout keeps climbing. More than 39 million Americans had voted early as of Wednesday, the Washington Post reported, and AP said more than 3.7 million ballots had already been cast in California alone.

Why it matters

With an appeal coming in California and possible emergency filings in Washington, ballot processing in two large vote-by-mail states could still face court challenges in the final days. For campaigns and election offices, the practical questions are whether processing timelines hold and whether voters on the federal lists are told where they stand. This article reports court filings and official statements and takes no position on the claims.

Sources

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