Wire reporting: (AP, via Anchorage Daily News)

A federal appeals court on Monday declined to stop California from counting about 20,000 mail ballots that the Justice Department says likely belong to noncitizens, sending the dispute back to a district judge days before the Nov. 3 midterms^1,2.

In a 2-1 ruling, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the Trump administration had not given lower courts enough time and refused to halt tabulation, Al Jazeera reported¹. Judge Gabriel Sanchez wrote that the request asked a federal court to dictate a matter within the state’s traditional domain¹.

The administration sued mid-October after accusing California of missing a 48-hour deadline to review its list². It has not publicly detailed how the names were compiled¹. California officials dispute that the people listed are noncitizens; Los Angeles election officials said most of a random sample appeared to have been born in the United States².

Two judges in concurrence questioned the list’s accuracy and said setting ballots aside late risked disenfranchising citizens². A dissenting judge said federal law bars noncitizen voting and that failing to check the ballots would cause irreparable harm².

A district hearing was scheduled Tuesday^1,2. The Justice Department made similar demands the same day in Washington state, the AP account said².