US Judge Rejects Trump Election Interference

A US judge has rejected the Department of Justice’s attempt to block more than 20,000 California voters from receiving ballots, claiming they may not be US citizens.

US District Judge David O. Carter ruled on Wednesday that the government had failed to justify the request. He described the move as pre-election interference and sided with California’s Democratic-led government.

The case has triggered controversy before the November 3 midterm elections. President Donald Trump’s Republican Party risks losing control of Congress.

Democratic Party leaders had sued the Trump administration over the request. They accused Republicans of using threats and intimidation against state and local officials before the vote.

In his ruling, Carter said the national government had never before sought to force a state and local government to abandon its election procedures so close to an election.

“Never before in American history has the federal government, on the eve of an election, sought to coerce a state and local government to abandon their own Constitutional elections procedures and bend to the will of the Executive Branch,” Carter wrote.

“Constitutional rights and our democracy are at stake. The public interest favors their protection,” he added.

Carter also warned that registered voters must not lose their voting rights because of unproven claims based on an unreliable process.

“Those registered on California’s voter roles ‘must not be deprived of a core right merely because of unfounded allegations stemming from a procedure rife with uncertainty and errors,’” the ruling said.

The US government had accused California in recent months of having about 190,000 illegal voters on its records. It later reduced the figure to 20,000. About 10 days ago, the Justice Department filed an emergency lawsuit seeking to stop California from sending ballots to the voters. The case came after early voting had already begun.

A similar case in neighbouring Nevada also raised concerns about claims of non-citizen voting. The Trump administration initially identified 16,000 people it alleged were non-citizen voters.

However, verification reduced the figure to 185 before it eventually fell to zero. Carter said the California case reflected a wider pattern of efforts by national officials to interfere in elections.

For months, Trump, who has never accepted his defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, has claimed that fraud will affect this year’s midterm elections.

However, studies have repeatedly found that voter fraud is rare and has not been shown to affect election results on a scale that changes outcomes.