Sacramento federal court rejects request to set aside ballots tied to citizenship review list

A federal district court in Sacramento denied a request to temporarily set aside ballots associated with registrants on a federal citizenship-review list. The court granted the California Ballot Administration Office's request for ordinary processing to continue to that extent.

The Federal Election Integrity Office had sought the pause while citizenship was checked, arguing that an improper ballot might be impossible to separate after counting. The dispute turned on whether a list flagging people for review was enough to justify holding their associated ballots.

The federal list summary supported a limited finding: more than 20,000 registrants had been flagged for possible citizenship review. It did not establish that any flagged person was ineligible, identify how many had mail ballots or show that a ballot could not be separated after counting.

The court said the federal office's concern about later separation was an argument, not independent evidence that separation would be impossible. It did not require proof that an improper ballot had already been counted, but required specific support for the requested intervention.

The proposed safeguard was narrower than a general halt, a limitation the court weighed in its favor. Even so, the record did not identify the ballots to be held, quantify the affected group or show how long verification would take, leaving the measure's scope and duration uncertain.

California's delay argument also had limited support. Although the state referred to a ballot-processing notice warning of delay, the notice itself was not in the record, so the court could not determine its wording, basis or the likely extent of any delay.

The federal office argued that counting first could make an improper ballot impossible to separate later. It acknowledged that the list did not prove anyone was ineligible, that not every listed registrant necessarily submitted a mail ballot, and that the record could not quantify affected ballots or verification time.

California disputed whether the list was reliable or current enough to justify a pause and argued that separate review could delay processing. It asked the court to let ordinary processing continue while the case proceeded.

The federal office identified a citizenship-review concern and provided a list shortly before counting. Its request was limited to ballots associated with listed registrants, rather than a pause in processing all ballots.

The court decided only whether the temporary safeguard was supported on the record before it. It did not decide any registrant's citizenship, the underlying list's ultimate reliability or whether any ballot was improper.