The Trump administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in its effort to set aside slightly more than 20,000 ballots in California linked to people it suspects may not be U.S. citizens. The emergency request was filed on Monday, one day before the midterm elections, after lower courts rejected the government’s bid to separate the ballots.
The Justice Department argues that the ballots should not be counted until the voters’ citizenship is verified. The request is part of a broader national effort to identify alleged noncitizen voters, with particular attention focused on California, a Democratic stronghold.
Experts say it is extremely rare for noncitizens to vote in the United States. An analysis submitted in the California case found that 42% of the roughly 20,000 names identified by the administration do not appear in the state’s current voter-registration records.
The Justice Department is asking the Supreme Court to issue a limited injunction preventing California from mixing the ballots associated with the questioned voters with other ballots while the case proceeds.
A federal judge in Los Angeles rejected the government’s request last Wednesday, ruling that its arguments were insufficient. District Judge David O. Carter said the proposed intervention would violate several federal laws, disrupt the midterm elections and likely disenfranchise eligible voters.
Carter also argued that states retain authority over their own election procedures and warned that granting a last-minute request of this kind could allow either party to create political chaos and disrupt the electoral process.
The Justice Department appealed the ruling and then took the dispute to the Supreme Court. The emergency application was assigned to Justice Elena Kagan, who handles requests from that region and may refer the matter to the full court. It was not immediately clear how quickly she would act or whether the justices would review the request before Election Day.
Sources: El País Internacional.