California Governor Asks Federal Judges to Resist Any Trump Attempt to Seize Ballots
Governor Gavin Newsom warned federal judges Saturday to be ready for potential administration attempts to seize ballots during the midterms, writing that search warrants could only serve to interfere with California's lawful counting — days after an appeals court rejected the administration's bid over its 20,000-voter list, Reuters reported.
California Governor Gavin Newsom on Saturday warned federal courts to be ready for potential attempts by President Donald Trump's administration to seize ballots during the upcoming midterm elections, Reuters reported. Newsom, a Democrat, sent the warning letter to federal judges as the state's legal fight with the administration intensified: the administration has demanded California records as part of a criminal investigation into noncitizen voting, and on Friday a U.S. appeals court rejected the administration's bid in that fight, potentially setting up a showdown at the U.S. Supreme Court, per Reuters.
'Given the United States Department of Justice's persistence in advancing this baseless theory of criminal liability, I have grave concerns federal agents will seek search warrants to seize ballots and ballot materials before the election results are certified,' Newsom wrote, in Reuters' account. The only reason to use search warrants would be to interfere in the state's 'lawful counting of ballots and certifying the results of the election,' he wrote to the federal judges. Separately, a federal judge has ordered the Justice Department to stop threatening to prosecute state and local election officials in California who refuse to comply with the administration's election-related demands, per Reuters.
The fight underneath the letter is the administration's claim that more than 20,000 noncitizens are registered to vote in California. The U.S. Constitution assigns the administration of elections to the states, but the administration has alleged the registrations all the same, though the state and many experts have questioned the validity of the list, and the Justice Department has not said how many of the people on its list have actually submitted ballots, per Reuters. California has said the department's assertions relied on 'suspect data' and that complying with its demands would risk disenfranchising eligible voters. No seizure attempt is reported in the account read — Newsom's letter is a warning ahead of Tuesday, and the story carries it as exactly that.
