Go Out and Indict.

The Justice Department went to a Los Angeles courtroom on October 27 with an emergency request: block California from counting mail ballots from more than 20,000 registered voters the administration alleges are noncitizens. It left with a piece of advice it did not ask for.

U.S. District Judge David Carter, presiding over the three-hour hearing, was skeptical from the start. He said he was concerned that sequestering ballots could disenfranchise and confuse legitimate voters, calling the request a monumental change to election procedures while voting was already underway. He said he would issue a ruling on Wednesday on the request for a temporary order.

Then came the line that will outlive the hearing. Carter told the Justice Department lawyer that the traditional remedy for voter fraud was a criminal indictment, and that unlawfully cast ballots can be removed in the weeks after Election Day, before certification. “You've got a remedy, for goodness sake,” the judge said. “Go out and indict.”

It is a remarkable sentence, not because it is hostile but because it is practical. The administration came to court asking to freeze the counting. The judge pointed at the courthouse door and suggested the older, simpler tool: charge somebody. Indictments do not require re-engineering an election midstream. They require evidence, a grand jury, and a courtroom — all of which, notably, already exist.

The panic, in the end, was over counting. The remedy, per the judge, is charging. Go out and indict.

Sources: Reuters (Oct. 27, 2026).