DOJ’s California ballot fight rejected by another judge
Twenty thousand ballots is a meaningful number, and the administration's worry about noncitizens voting is understandable, even if the actual scale of that problem is small. But Judge Carter's ruling rests on a principle that should matter to people on both sides: states run their own elections, and federal courts shouldn't casually override that. The DOJ has now been turned back more than once in this fight.
What I'd want to know is what evidence the administration actually has. If there's real proof that thousands of noncitizens are casting ballots in California, that deserves scrutiny. If the claim is built on data about voter rolls that doesn't translate into actual ballots, then the judge's skepticism makes sense. The ruling doesn't say the ballots are definitely from citizens, just that the state gets to keep processing them.
This connects to a broader tension in this election cycle over who gets to decide how voting works. I lean toward the view that courts should be careful before yanking ballots out of the normal process, especially this close to an election. But I'd want the underlying facts aired out, because the integrity question doesn't go away just because a judge ruled against the administration.