Supreme Court rejects Trump administration bid on California ballots
newsNov 3, 202638192
The US Supreme Court denied a last-minute Justice Department request to intervene and order California to set aside about 20,000 mail-in ballots the administration said may have been cast by non-citizens. The one-line order, referring the application presented to Justice Kagan, denied an injunction pending appeal and leaves intact two lower-court rulings that had rejected the government's bid. California election officials and the state secretary had questioned the federal list and the process used to identify alleged non-citizens, saying the list contained inaccuracies and segregating ballots during counting was unfeasible; a federal appeals court had already declined the government's request. The justice department filed a 22-page brief arguing ballots cast by non-citizens could "debase or dilute valid votes," and the department previously sent letters and Homeland Security officials to counties threatening criminal charges if ballots were not sequestered. District Judge David Carter, in a separate ruling, called the administration's move part of an "ongoing pattern of attempted election interference" and ordered the DOJ to stop threatening election officials. The ruling comes on the eve of the midterm elections, after California had received more than six million mail-in ballots and with some 23 million people on the state's voter roll, and it effectively ends the administration's attempt to disqualify the specified ballots.
