Trump administration seeks Supreme Court order to set aside California ballots

President Donald Trump’s administration has asked the United States Supreme Court to prevent California from counting mail-in ballots cast by more than 20,000 voters it alleges are not American citizens. The emergency application was filed on Monday, November 2, a day before the midterm elections, following unsuccessful efforts in two lower courts.

The Justice Department is seeking to have California put the affected ballots aside while the citizenship of the voters is verified. Its request concerns people identified on a list assembled by the Department of Homeland Security. The administration wants their ballots withheld from the count until their citizenship status has been confirmed.

California disputes the reliability of that list and says thousands of American citizens could be among those flagged. State officials warn that granting the administration’s request could deprive eligible voters of having their ballots counted. The disagreement centres on whether the government’s data provides a reliable basis for taking that step during an election already in progress.

There is also a practical obstacle, according to California officials. Voting began in early October, and officials say separating the ballots covered by the request would now be nearly impossible. The administration is therefore seeking intervention after weeks of voting, with the election itself scheduled for Tuesday.

A federal judge refused the administration’s request last week, expressing doubts about the reliability of the information used to compile the list. Judge David Carter warned in his ruling about the danger to democracy when the executive branch seeks to discount votes or threaten an ongoing election on the basis of allegations that have not been proved.

The administration then sought relief from a federal appeals court, which also turned down its request on Friday. Those two setbacks preceded Monday’s emergency filing, bringing the dispute over the California ballots before the Supreme Court immediately ahead of the midterm vote.

The legal confrontation involves the country’s most populous state, a Democratic stronghold, as Republicans seek to preserve their control of Congress. It also unfolds against the backdrop of Trump’s repeated false assertions of widespread voter fraud. Studies and state audits have found that voting by ineligible people, including noncitizens, occurs rarely.