Voter ID is the only method to repair California’s damaged election system.

That’s the only affordable conclusion from Sunday’s extraordinary listening to at the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

A 3-judge panel heard the Trump administration’s case against non-citizen voting in California.

California bars non-citizens from voting. But it doesn’t require anyone to show citizenship when they register. David Buchan for New York Post

Earlier this month, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) gave California a thumb drive with 20,000 names on it, ostensibly containing the names of suspected non-citizens who had registered to vote in the state.

State and county officers, who had already despatched ballots out by mail, refused to open it.

So the DOJ sued in district courtroom, hoping to power California to put aside these 20,000 ballots if and when they came in. 

Time is of the essence: ballots are already being mailed back, and counted. And once they are in, it’s virtually not possible to fish them out again.

The district choose set a listening to date eight days after the case was filed. Normally, that’s fast. But in the center of a vote-by-mail election, it meant that tons of of 1000’s of ballots would be counted in the interim.

The state appeared to argue that anyone could problem a non-citizen’s poll as it was being solid. CHRIS TORRES/EPA/Shutterstock

So the Trump administration appealed to the Ninth Circuit to intervene.

The judges — two Trump appointees, one Biden appointee — appeared skeptical of the DOJ’s case, at first. 

After all, the Constitution’s Elections Clause leaves it to the states to determine how to run their election. 

Sure, federal legislation prohibits non-citizens from voting — as does state legislation in California — but usually it’s up to California to determine out how to implement that.

And if California decides not to make voters show they are residents — if it just asks them to “attest” that they are — that might be lame, but it might also be within California’s proper to do so. 

There’s Proposition 39, which would require voters to have legitimate ID to vote.  Zuma / SplashNews.com

The Tenth Amendment — essential to conservatives — also prevents the federal authorities from forcing the states to implement federal legal guidelines. 

That’s called “commandeering” — and Trump can’t power California to implement federal legal guidelines against non-citizens voting. Nor can Trump make the state implement its own legal guidelines, either.

The judges — including the Trump appointees — were also anxious about stepping into the decrease courtroom case too quickly.

Why the rush? And if the federal authorities was involved about votes being counted before non-citizen ballots could be separated, why hadn’t it acted sooner?

The DOJ, represented by Matthew Donnelly, said that the administration didn’t have a dependable listing of non-citizen voters until not too long ago.

Whether the judges purchase that rationalization stays to be seen.

But the judges also had one lingering query for the State of California’s attorneys that they could not reply.

After all, the Constitution’s Elections Clause leaves it to the states to determine how to run their election. Carlin Stiehl for CA Post

If it’s unlawful for non-citizens to vote in California, how does the state cease them from voting?

California’s attorneys appeared to have no reply. 

“Your Honor, I honestly don’t know the answer to that.”

The state appeared to argue that anyone could problem a non-citizen’s poll as it was being solid.

(How are you supposed to do that — cover in a mailbox?)

Suppose someone does problem a poll. The judges requested how the state would confirm the accusation.

“There could very well be a verification process,” a lawyer for the state replied.

Could be? You imply, they don’t know? 

Well, he said, he was positive that a shedding candidate could deliver some variety of problem. But he’d have to have overwhelming proof, and there would have to be enough non-citizen votes to make the distinction in the election.

They say that very few non-citizens vote — but they make it not possible to know. Brennan Smart for CA Post

Good luck discovering that proof after an election. Especially when California takes several weeks to depend the votes.

Here’s where issues stand.

California bars non-citizens from voting. But it doesn’t require anyone to show citizenship when they register.

If a non-citizen casts a poll, there’s virtually no sensible method to problem it.

The State of California set the system up this method — on function.

They say that very few non-citizens vote — but they make it not possible to know.

And they’re proud of it. Smug, even. What are you going to do about it?

Well, there is one factor to do about it.

There’s Proposition 39, which would require voters to have legitimate ID to vote. 

It’s the only method to make positive that only residents vote in California’s elections. 

It’s curious that Democrats are so decided to cease it.

Joel Pollak is Opinion editor of The California Post.

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