Appeals court blocks Trump bid to block 20,000 ballots of suspected non-citizens in California. Here's why

A federal appeals court on Monday (Oct 26) refused to order California to set aside 20,000 ballots that President Donald Trump's administration says were likely cast by noncitizens, ruling that the government did not give the lower court enough time to weigh the case. The 2-1 decision sends the matter back to the district judge, who has scheduled arguments for later this week. The setback comes with just 9 days left for the US midterms.

Trouble of his "own making"

The majority found that the Trump administration, by its "own making", created a time crunch by waiting until late in the election season and then improperly trying to rush District Judge David Carter. "That these proceedings encroach on the cusp of an election is a delay entirely of the United States' own making," wrote Judge Gabriel Sanchez, a Biden appointee and one of the two judges in the majority. The other was Judge Mark Bennett, a Trump pick.

Also read | US Midterms 2026: Dead for years, paedophile Jeffrey Epstein finds mention in over 500 campaign ads; Texas alone spent $10 million

Judge Sanchez noted that ballots began going out on Oct. 1, and the Justice Department waited weeks to file its lawsuit. Notably, some ballots have already been tallied, including those of alleged noncitizens. He also said the administration's demand of state election officials to sequester the ballots until citizenship is redetermined was likely impossible to carry out.

Judge Patrick Bumatay, a Trump pick, dissented, arguing the federal government has the power to demand the ballots not be counted and that the Supremacy Clause lets the administration sue to enforce that. He called the emergency serious enough that the appeals court should have stepped in.

"We should've granted the federal government relief — federal law precludes California from commingling ballots likely cast by aliens with legitimate ballots, because it encourages and induces illegal voting," he wrote. "Stopping that practice for those identified as likely noncitizens is the bare minimum."

A "welcome speed bump": Newsom responds

California Gov. Gavin Newsom called the ruling "a welcome speed bump" for Trump's agenda and urged voters to punish the president at the polls.

"Vote early, go to a vote centre, put your ballot in a dropbox. If everyone who cares about democracy participates, this election won't be close — and none of Trump's lies or conspiracy theories will be able to call that result, and the will of people, into doubt," he added.

A single district judge in Florida recently ruled that the federal law barring noncitizens from voting was unconstitutional. That decision is on appeal, and no other court has adopted that reasoning.

Also read | US Midterms: Trump doubles down on $5,000 dividend as economists call it a 'half-baked political scheme'. Can a Republican win guarantee it?

How the 20,000 names were found

The 20,000 names identified by the federal government are far fewer than the 190,000 names Homeland Security said it spotted over the summer.

The smaller tally came from taking a list of California voters, running it through third-party databases to match names to identities, then checking them in government files. DHS's citizenship agency looked for people with immigration files and then searched for evidence they had achieved citizenship. Those without such evidence were deemed good candidates to be noncitizens.

That list was forwarded to Homeland Security Investigations, DHS's detective force, which reviewed it and produced the final list given to the state.

State officials said they distrusted the process, pointing to previous DHS lists sent to other states that were found to have included actual citizens as potential noncitizens. Judge Sanchez, in Monday's ruling, said those problems likely persist.