The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Monday to require California to set aside mail-in ballots cast by about 20,000 registered voters whom federal officials allege may not be U.S. citizens. The emergency request came one day before the Nov. 3 midterm elections, when voters will decide which party controls Congress.
The Justice Department wants the ballots separated from other votes until the voters’ citizenship can be verified. The administration argued that waiting until after the ballots are mixed with other mail-in ballots would make it impossible to identify and remove votes later determined to be ineligible.
“Once California commingles the challenged ballots with lawful ones, there is no way to get the challenged ballots back.” — The Justice Department
California officials have opposed the request, saying the federal list is unreliable and could include U.S. citizens who are eligible to vote. California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the state already has safeguards for election administration and rejected the federal government’s role in directing how the state handles the ballots.
“There is no widespread voter fraud.” — California Attorney General Rob Bonta
The dispute began after the Department of Homeland Security compiled a list of registered California voters it identified as possible noncitizens. The Justice Department sent letters to county registrars and other election officials seeking to prevent ballots associated with those voters from being counted. The department also filed a civil lawsuit seeking to stop California from tabulating the ballots.
Lower courts rejected the request
U.S. District Judge David Carter rejected the administration’s request on Oct. 28. Carter said the government had not provided enough evidence that the process used to create the list was credible. He also wrote that the federal government had never before, on the eve of an election, sought to force state and local officials to abandon their election procedures at the direction of the executive branch.
The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the administration’s appeal on Friday. The appeals court agreed that requiring California to use the federal list could prevent valid votes from being counted and create problems for the Los Angeles County election. The administration then turned to the Supreme Court for emergency relief.
- The administration is seeking an immediate order requiring California to set aside the ballots.
- California says the federal list could include eligible U.S. citizens.
- Judge David Carter and the 9th Circuit rejected the request before the Supreme Court filing.
The Constitution assigns states and Congress responsibility for regulating federal elections, while the administration argues that federal officials must enforce laws prohibiting noncitizens from voting in federal contests. President Donald Trump has repeatedly alleged that noncitizens are affecting elections through illegal voting. The administration’s request is being handled by Justice Elena Kagan, who had not set a deadline for California to respond as of Monday.
The Supreme Court rejected an earlier administration effort to restrict mail-in voting in September. California has mailed ballots to roughly 23 million registered voters, and state officials said hundreds of thousands had already been processed before the emergency filing.
