White House Seeks Supreme Court Aid on California Ballots

The Trump administration filed an emergency appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, seeking to remove approximately 20,000 California mail ballots from the count ahead of the November 3 midterm elections. The request follows an earlier rejection by a federal appeals court that denied the government's bid to set aside these specific votes.

Federal officials argue the ballots should not be counted until the voters' citizenship status is verified. The Justice Department describes the list of affected individuals as containing people the government suspects may not be citizens. California officials counter that the list is unreliable and likely includes many valid U.S. citizens. The state has prioritized this issue as part of a wider effort to identify noncitizen voters this year.

The Justice Department is asking the high court for a limited injunction. This order would direct California to stop mixing the suspected ballots with verified legal ones while the legal dispute continues. A district court judge previously denied this request, warning that such a move could disenfranchise citizens in the upcoming election.

Voting in California began in early October. The state mails ballots to all roughly 23 million registered voters. Hundreds of thousands of these ballots have already been processed. Judge David O. Carter of the U.S. District Court stated that segregating the ballots would wreak havoc on the midterm process. He wrote that if the executive branch can discount votes based on unproven allegations, the democracy faces danger.

Lower courts have consistently sided with the state in this dispute. The administration has sought to accelerate the case by asking the appeals court to intervene early, but that bid failed. The Supreme Court has previously rejected the president's push to restrict mail ballots ahead of midterms, though the Trump administration has secured other recent victories in emergency appeals before the justices.