Appeals Court Again Rejects Donald Trump Bid to Block 20,000 California Ballots Days Before the Midterms

 

A federal appeals court on Friday, October 30, 2026, rejected for a second time this week the Donald Trump administration's emergency request to stop California from counting mail ballots from more than 20,000 registered voters the Justice Department alleges are likely noncitizens, leaving the disputed ballots in the count just four days before the November 3 midterm elections.

In a 2-1 decision, a panel of the San Francisco-based Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals declined the Justice Department's request for an injunction pending appeal, handing the administration its third straight court loss in the case. Judges Mark Bennett, appointed by Donald Trump, and Gabriel Sanchez, appointed by former President Joe Biden, formed the majority. Judge Patrick Bumatay, also appointed by Donald Trump, dissented, calling the administration's request reasonable.

"No feasible way" to separate the ballots

"As the district court found — and we discern no clear error — there is no feasible way to identify and segregate the ballots of specific individuals without potentially catastrophic effects on the entire system," the majority wrote, according to reporting on the order. The judges added that granting the request carried "a material risk" of disenfranchising eligible voters, and warned that the consequence would ultimately be not only ballot segregation but the cancellation of ballots and the removal of voters from the rolls.

The ruling upheld U.S. District Judge David O. Carter's October 28 decision refusing the same request. Carter had said the proposed order would "wreak havoc and disrupt the election" and could have a chilling effect on election workers and voters alike, giving officials until December 3 — the date by which results must be certified — to resolve the dispute through normal procedures.

A list California calls unreliable

The dispute stems from a Justice Department lawsuit filed October 15 seeking to require California and Los Angeles County election officials to set aside ballots connected to more than 20,000 voters the federal government identified as likely noncitizens, holding them apart until citizenship could be verified. The administration sent California its list on October 12, barely three weeks before the election.

California officials have refused, arguing they lack the mechanisms and legal authority to freeze mail ballots, and that the list is highly unreliable. The state told the court that about one in four voters on it were born in the United States. Noncitizen voting in federal elections is illegal in all 50 states, but California says the federal government has not proved that the people on its list are in fact foreign nationals.

The appeals court had already rejected an earlier emergency request from the Justice Department on Monday, saying the administration had not given the lower court adequate time to weigh the matter. Friday's decision came after Carter ruled against the administration on Wednesday and the department appealed again.

What happens next

Friday's decision does not end the underlying lawsuit, but it leaves the disputed ballots subject to California's normal election procedures as voting continues. The Justice Department's remaining court path, analysts note, would be an application to the Supreme Court.

The fight is running alongside a separate, related clash: Los Angeles County election employees have received federal grand jury subpoenas ordering them to appear in court on November 4, the day after Election Day, and to provide documents connected to the dispute over voter citizenship — the subpoenas at the centre of a separate federal probe reported this week.

Sources: Reuters, October 30, 2026; USA Today, October 30, 2026; Al Jazeera, October 30, 2026; CBS News and Associated Press, via reporting on October 30, 2026.