The Trump administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to temporarily block the counting of mail ballots from more than 20,000 registered voters in California, arguing that they are likely not U.S. citizens. The request came a day before the midterm elections and after a federal appeals court declined to grant similar relief on Friday.
The administration wants the ballots separated from others and held out of the count while officials verify the voters’ citizenship. The government compiled the list of voters and sent it to California and Los Angeles County authorities. In its emergency filing, it argued that once the contested ballots are mixed with others, they cannot be recovered.
California says its safeguards against voting by noncitizens are rigorous and that the case could disenfranchise 20,000 people on the basis of vague allegations. The state has also challenged the government’s process for reviewing voter rolls, calling it flawed and likely to contain errors.
A federal judge in Los Angeles rejected the administration’s request last week. Judge David Carter questioned the reliability of the government’s data and noted that people identified as noncitizens on voter lists in other states had repeatedly turned out to be naturalized U.S. citizens. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also refused to block the ballots, citing California’s authority over election procedures and its system for canceling registrations when voters are found ineligible.
The dispute comes as Republicans seek to retain control of Congress. California, the country’s most populous state and a Democratic stronghold, has 52 seats in the House. Democrats need to gain four seats to win a majority.
The administration has stepped up its efforts to challenge alleged noncitizen voting during the final stretch of the campaign. The Justice Department has told election officials in all 50 states they could face criminal charges if they knowingly allow noncitizens to remain on voter rolls or vote. The department has also lost several lawsuits seeking sensitive personal information from state voter lists.
The U.S. Constitution gives states responsibility for administering elections, while the federal government has oversight powers. California’s case follows other unsuccessful efforts by the administration to change election rules, including a bid to restrict mail voting that the Supreme Court rejected in September and a lawsuit over the Alaska Senate race that a federal judge turned down on Sunday.
A Reuters investigation published in July identified 129 cases in which noncitizens had been accused of voting illegally since a 1996 federal law criminalized the practice. The article also noted that studies and state audits have found voting by ineligible people, including noncitizens, to be rare.
Sources: Folha Mundo.