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Judge skeptical of Justice Dept lawsuit over alleged noncitizens on voting rolls · GNN Daily Breaking News

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  Speaker 1: A federal judge expressed strong skepticism during a high-stakes court
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  Speaker 1: hearing evaluating a Department of Justice lawsuit against California, questioning
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  Speaker 1: government assertions that thousands of non-citizens remain improperly registered on
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  Speaker 1: state voter rolls. Presiding over oral arguments in federal court,
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  Speaker 1: the judge challenged government attorneys to present concrete factual evidence
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  Speaker 1: demonstrating widespread ineligible voter registration rather than relying on generalized
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  Speaker 1: statistical estimates. The federal suit, which seeks an immediate court
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  Speaker 1: order to prevent state election authorities from tabulating specific mail-in ballots,
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  Speaker 1: faces intense judicial scrutiny just six days before the November
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  Speaker 1: 3rd midterm elections. During proceedings, Justice Department litigators argued that
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  Speaker 1: federal civil rights laws authorize executive intervention to protect vote
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  Speaker 1: integrity when state databases contain potentially inaccurate records. However, the
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  Speaker 1: court pressed federal attorneys on why the administration launched its
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  Speaker 1: legal challenge in the final weeks of the campaign cycle
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  Speaker 1: rather than utilizing established statutory maintenance procedures earlier in the year.
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  Speaker 1: The judge repeatedly highlighted the strict prohibition under federal law
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  Speaker 1: against removing voters from official registration rolls within 90 days
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  Speaker 1: of a federal election, noting that emergency judicial intervention risks
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  Speaker 1: creating severe administrative disruption. Legal counsel representing California Secretary of
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  Speaker 1: State Shirley Weber and Attorney General Rob Bonta pushed for
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  Speaker 1: the case's immediate dismissal, characterizing the federal filing as a
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  Speaker 1: politically driven maneuver lacking verified data. State representatives demonstrated that
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  Speaker 1: Department of Homeland Security matching lists previously turned over to
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  Speaker 1: election administrators contained widespread errors. including naturalized American citizens who
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  Speaker 1: were incorrectly flagged as foreign nationals. Civil rights organizations intervening
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  Speaker 1: in the litigation warned that approving last-minute voter roll purges
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  Speaker 1: would cause widespread voter confusion and disenfranchise thousands of eligible voters.
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  Speaker 1: The judges' critical questioning reflects broader judicial resistance to last-minute
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  Speaker 1: executive challenges targeting state election administration across multiple federal circuits.
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  Speaker 1: With early voting and mail-in balloting already underway nationwide, the
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  Speaker 1: federal court is expected to issue a formal ruling in
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  Speaker 1: the coming days regarding the government's request for emergency injunctive relief.
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  Speaker 1: As both political parties monitor the outcome, the legal dispute
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  Speaker 1: underscores the fierce debate surrounding executive law enforcement authority and
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  Speaker 1: state voter protections in the closing sprint to Election Day.