# David O. Carter **David O. Carter** is a United States district judge for the **Central District of California**, in Los Angeles, appointed by President Bill Clinton and on the court since 1998. He enters this knowledge base for one ruling. On **28 October 2026**, six days before the midterm election, he refused the Justice Department's request that California election officials set aside roughly **20,000 mail ballots** cast by people the federal government said might not be citizens. The request, and the letter campaign that preceded it, are recorded at [[DOJ California Noncitizen Ballot Litigation 2026]]. ## The order Carter denied the emergency relief and said why at length. > [!quote] Order of 28 October 2026 > "Never before in American history has the federal government, on the eve of an election, sought to coerce a state and local government to abandon their own Constitutional elections procedures and bend to the will of the Executive Branch." > > "This case is about the right of every American citizen to vote in a free and fair election." Three findings carry beyond the case. **The pattern, not the filing.** Carter wrote that the administration had embarked on **"a broad, ongoing pattern of attempted election interference"** — characterising a course of federal conduct rather than ruling only on the motion in front of him. That phrase is what makes the order citable in the other October election cases. **The harm is confidence.** He located the irreparable injury in public trust: **"eroded trust in our democracy is irreparable."** The state had argued the harm lay in uncounted votes; Carter went further, treating the damage as something the eventual count could not repair. **The premise failed.** The court found California had not registered 20,000 people ineligible to vote in federal elections. The relief was also impossible as asked: ballots were already out and already being returned, so stopping them meant halting an election in progress. He had admonished the government a day earlier over threats directed at election officials. A Ninth Circuit panel had refused, 2–1, on 26 October to let the government route its appeal around him. On **29 October** he ordered the Justice Department to turn its list of the roughly 20,000 flagged voters over to immigration-advocacy groups. ## Why he matters here Judges appear on this wiki when a ruling fixes a fact the political record keeps unsettled. Carter's does two things at once. It is the first judicial finding in the 2026 cycle that federal election conduct amounts to a pattern rather than a series of separate disputes — a conclusion the wiki had been tracking across [[DOJ California Noncitizen Ballot Litigation 2026]], [[United States v. State of Alaska]] and [[ICE Voter Records Collection]] without a court having said it. And it establishes that the unverified federal list, not the state's conduct, is the weak link, which is the same answer Nevada's records produced when the equivalent list was checked there. The order did not end the matter. The government said it would appeal, and on the day after the ruling its prosecutors served grand jury subpoenas on county election staff with a return date of 4 November. A ruling against an injunction does not reach a grand jury. ## See Also - [[DOJ California Noncitizen Ballot Litigation 2026]] — the case - [[Shirley Weber]] · [[Dean Logan]] — the California officials the federal letters named - [[Todd Blanche]] · [[Trent McCotter]] — the Justice Department signatories - [[Rob Bonta]] — California's attorney general - [[United States v. State of Alaska]] — the companion October suit, on certification - [[Election Interference]] · [[Voter Suppression]] · [[Election Certification]] - [[2026 Midterms Hub]]