A US judge has rejected a request by the Justice Department to temporarily block California from counting any mail ballots for the 3 November midterm elections received from people on a list of more than 20,000 registered voters the Trump administration alleges are likely noncitizens. US District Judge David Carter issued the decision after a hearing on Tuesday in a Los Angeles federal court, following the department's request for a temporary restraining order. The ruling is the latest setback for President Donald Trump's effort to expand the federal government's role in elections ahead of the midterms.

California's Case Against The Challenge

The Justice Department filed its lawsuit on 15 October, a rare federal intervention weeks before an election. California has said its safeguards against noncitizen voting are robust, described the department's assertions as relying on "suspect data", and warned that complying would risk disenfranchising eligible voters. The department did not indicate how many of the more than 20,000 people it flagged in California had actually submitted a mail ballot. California is the most populous US state, with 52 House seats, more than any other state.

A Wider Pattern Of Federal Intervention

The hearing came after a federal appeals court on Monday rejected an unusual emergency request by the Justice Department asking it to block counting of the ballots before Judge Carter had ruled. Beyond California, the administration has sought to intervene in two other states. In Alaska, it asked a judge last week to prevent certification if the Republican incumbent senator loses by a slim margin, citing a similarly named candidate; Alaska has urged dismissal. In Washington state, it asked officials on Monday not to count ballots from 400 voters it said may not be citizens, a request the state's top elections official criticised.

Sources: Reuters, Reuters (Minnesota voting case).