{"id":12694,"date":"2026-10-30T22:18:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T22:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=12694"},"modified":"2026-10-30T22:18:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T22:18:18","slug":"us-appeals-court-again-rejects-trump-bid-to-set-aside-california-ballots-us-midterm-elections-2026-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=12694","title":{"rendered":"US appeals court again rejects Trump bid to set aside California ballots | US Midterm Elections 2026 News"},"content":{"rendered":"
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For the second time in less than a week, a United States appeals court has rejected a petition from the administration of President Donald Trump to set aside 20,000 ballots in California over concerns about non-citizen voting.<\/p>\n

The decision came down on Friday, with less than four days until the November 3 midterm elections.<\/p>\n

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The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Trump\u2019s request would violate the US Constitution and risk disenfranchising eligible voters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe consequence of the United States\u2019s request is not merely ballot segregation, but ultimately both the cancellation of the ballot and the removal of voters from the voting rolls,\u201d the majority wrote in its ruling.<\/p>\n

Judges Mark Bennett and Gabriel Sanchez \u2013 appointed by Trump and his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden, respectively \u2013 formed the majority.<\/p>\n

A third judge, Trump appointee Patrick Bumatay, issued a dissent, saying the administration\u2019s petition was a \u201creasonable request\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has claimed that nearly 20,000 \u201clikely non-citizens\u201d received mail-in ballots to vote in California\u2019s midterm elections on November 3. It sued the state on October 15 to prevent those ballots from being counted.<\/p>\n

But the accuracy of the Trump administration\u2019s list has been called into doubt, as have its claims of widespread non-citizen voting.<\/p>\n

Election fraud in the US is extremely rare. So is non-citizen voting, despite Trump\u2019s assertion earlier this year that as many as 278,000 foreign nationals across the country were registered to vote.<\/p>\n

Like California, states such as Nevada and Washington have also received lists of alleged non-citizen voters, but officials there have found the documents largely inaccurate.<\/p>\n

In Nevada, for instance, state authorities issued a statement in September saying the Trump administration had erroneously identified citizens as non-citizens on its list. Not a single name was correct, according to the statement.<\/p>\n

California, a Democratic stronghold, will elect 52 members of the House of Representatives, one of Congress\u2019s two chambers, on November 3.<\/p>\n

The state has long been Trump\u2019s target for criticism, with the president accusing its Democratic leadership of \u201ccheating\u201d in elections.<\/p>\n

But California officials, including Governor Gavin Newsom, have countered that the Trump administration is seeking to meddle in the state\u2019s elections to sow voter distrust and undermine the results.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a sad, desperate attempt by Trump to use his politicized Justice Department to try to suppress California voters,\u201d Newsom said in a news release after the October 15 lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Non-citizen voting in federal elections is against the law in all 50 US states, including California.<\/p>\n

The Constitution\u2019s Elections Clause also grants states exclusive authority to administer elections, though it does allow for Congress to pass regulations concerning voting procedures.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration initially sent California its list of 20,000 \u201clikely non-citizens\u201d on October 12, barely three weeks before the midterm election.<\/p>\n

California officials refused the administration\u2019s demand to set aside the 20,000 ballots, requesting proof that the names on the list were indeed foreign nationals. According to the California government, no such evidence has been provided.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration last week charged 28 foreign nationals in California with election-related infractions, but some of the accused told the Los Angeles Times they had never registered to vote.<\/p>\n

The newspaper\u2019s reporting suggested some of the non-citizen defendants shared the same name as eligible voters.<\/p>\n

As the October 15 lawsuit navigated the court system earlier this month, the Trump administration sought an emergency ruling from the 9th Circuit Court to suspend the 20,000 ballots.<\/p>\n

But the appeals court rejected the petition<\/a> on Monday, saying the Trump administration had not given lower courts adequate time to weigh the matter.<\/p>\n

A lower court ultimately ruled against<\/a> the Trump administration on Wednesday, and the administration again appealed to the 9th Circuit Court.<\/p>\n

In its majority decision, the appeals court framed the Trump administration\u2019s lawsuit as an attempt to violate the Constitution\u2019s Elections Clause.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe decline the United States\u2019s invitation to contravene the Elections Clause by undermining the Constitution\u2019s plain text,\u201d the majority wrote.<\/p>\n

The majority also wrote that it had \u201cmajor concerns\u201d that granting the Trump administration\u2019s request would\u00a0\u201charm the public interest by risking the disenfranchisement of eligible voters and putting the entire tabulation process in jeopardy\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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For the second time in less than a week, a United States appeals court has rejected a petition from the administration of President Donald Trump to set aside 20,000 ballots in California over concerns about non-citizen voting. The decision came down on Friday, with less than four days until the November 3 midterm elections. Recommended…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12695,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_templately_pack_id":"","_templately_imported_at":"","_templately_source":"","_templately_import_session_id":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-international-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t