Supreme Court rejects Trump request to set aside California ballots
Top court declines to block California from counting ballots of voters Trump administration claims are not US citizens.
The United States Supreme Court has declined to intervene on behalf of President Donald Trump’s administration in its bid to force California not to count the ballots of more than 20,000 voters it claims are not citizens.
The Department of Justice had filed an emergency request earlier in the day, just one day before the US midterm elections. It is the latest development in a legal battle between the administration and California, a Democratic stronghold and the most populous US state.
California says the move could disenfranchise thousands of eligible voters.
The Justice Department wanted the Supreme Court to step in immediately and force California to set aside ballots from voters who appear on a list compiled by the Department of Homeland Security until their citizenship status can be verified.
The department argues that once the ballots are mixed in with others, there would be no way to identify and remove them if the voters were later found to be ineligible.
But California says the list is unreliable and could include thousands of US citizens.
Voting has been under way since early October, with ballots mailed to about 23 million registered voters and hundreds of thousands already processed. State officials say it would be nearly impossible to separate the ballots in question.
Last week, a federal judge rejected the administration’s request, raising concerns about the reliability of the data on the US Department of Homeland Security’s list.
“If the executive can discount votes and threaten an ongoing election due to unproven allegations, then our democracy is in danger,” Judge David Carter wrote.
The administration turned to the Supreme Court after a federal appeals court also rejected the request on Friday.
In September, the Supreme Court rejected an earlier effort to restrict mail-in voting.
The dispute comes as Republicans fight to retain control of the US Congress in Tuesday’s elections.
Trump has repeatedly made false claims about widespread voter fraud, but studies and state audits have shown that ineligible voting, including by non-citizens, is rare.
