SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — A court of appeals has ruled that California does not need to segregate ballots as requested by the Department of Justice, dealing a setback to a federal effort that has intensified the clash over how elections are run in the state.
The Trump administration has alleged the state sent ballots to people who may not be citizens. The dispute comes just days away from Election Day.
Thursday, the Department of Justice issued subpoenas to election officials in California, including in Los Angeles.
"I think this is an escalation of the Department of Justice's efforts to try and obtain voter registration information from voters in California."
San Diego County hasn't been subpoenaed over segregating ballots. But last week, the Department of Justice sent a letter to the county registrar of voters demanding private voter information for just over 1,700 voters within 48 hours.
The letter asked the county to segregate the ballots until the DOJ can independently confirm the citizenship status of the voters in question. It threatened criminal charges if officials tabulate ballots of noncitizens.
San Diego County responded with a letter of its own. In its six-page response, the county says it will not comply with the DOJ demands, questioning the reliability of the list and calling the threat of criminal charges an effort to intimidate both election officials and California voters.
An appeals court Friday seemingly agreed, calling the government's efforts unconstitutional.
Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School, says voters won't notice much of a difference despite this dispute.
"Actually will not affect people's experience on election day, and I suspect will not affect which votes are counted and which aren't," Levinson said.
Friday, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Southern California said he couldn't comment about San Diego County's response.
"I appreciate the question, again, just pending litigation so I can't answer those questions," Adam Gordon said.
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