The US Supreme Court on Monday rejected the Trump administration’s request to have California set aside thousands of mail-in ballots cast by people it identified as likely noncitizens. The decision came one day before the midterm elections, which will determine control of Congress for the final two years of President Donald Trump’s second term.
The case involved about 20,000 people on California’s voter lists. The administration had asked the court to keep their ballots separate until their citizenship could be verified. California officials argued that the list contained many errors and that the measure could block eligible voters from having their ballots counted.
The Supreme Court did not explain its decision, as is common in emergency rulings. Lower courts had sided with California. A district judge warned that separating the ballots could cause election chaos and harm public confidence, and a three-judge appeals panel upheld that ruling by a 2–1 vote.
The Justice Department acknowledged that its list was not fully reliable. During a hearing, department lawyer Kenneth Kao agreed there was a high rate of errors and said the government wanted election officials to help verify the names. Bill Essayli, the federal prosecutor overseeing the department’s Los Angeles office, said he was confident the people listed were not entitled to vote, while later acknowledging that the list could contain mistakes.
California officials said it was now logistically impossible to locate and separate the disputed ballots. Voting in the state began in early October, and all registered voters are sent a ballot by mail; hundreds of thousands of votes had already been processed. California Attorney General Rob Bonta called the administration’s appeal an attempt to undermine elections and the rule of law.
Also on Monday, a federal judge in Washington ruled against the administration’s effort to impose last-minute requirements on California election officials, finding that the measures likely violated the Constitution’s allocation of authority over election rules to states and Congress. The Supreme Court had also declined in September to hear a Trump bid to restrict mail voting nationwide.
Sources: G1.