Trump administration asks Supreme Court to freeze counting of 20,000 California mail ballots
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Lawyers for the Trump administration rushed to the Supreme Court with an emergency petition seeking to separate roughly 20,000 California mail ballots that federal officials say may belong to non-citizens, just days before the midterm election.
Lawyers for the Trump administration filed an emergency petition with the Supreme Court on the eve of the midterm election, asking the Court to impose a limited injunction that would force California to set aside roughly 20,000 mail ballots that federal officials claim may have been cast by non-citizens. Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued that the Court should order California to segregate the suspected ballots while the appeal to the Ninth Circuit moves forward and the Court considers the case.
The request was first sent to Justice Elena Kagan, who may ask California to respond, a process that could take several days. The administration has already been turned away by a federal judge in Los Angeles and twice by the Ninth Circuit, which found the complaint both untimely and constitutionally defective.
California Governor Gavin Newsom denounced the appeal as baseless and called the supposed emergency dubious, pointing out that the administration waited several days before seeking relief.
State officials, including Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean Logan, have challenged the reliability of the federal list used to flag the 20,000 voters. Analyses by UCLA’s Voting Rights Project and Los Angeles County officials found that a substantial portion of the names on the list were either U.S. citizens, not registered to vote, or born in the United States.
Attorneys for California say that complying with the request while voting is underway would create widespread disruption and could disenfranchise legitimate voters. Justice Department officials say the request is limited to setting aside the flagged ballots pending verification of citizenship, and they argue that emergency relief is needed because California law allows ballots to be counted before Election Day, making later segregation difficult.
The Ninth Circuit judges stressed that the Constitution’s Elections Clause gives states primary authority over the “times, places and manner” of congressional elections unless Congress sets a different rule. A dissenting judge described the administration’s proposal as a “reasonable request” and a “modest remedy.”
Legal scholars and advocacy groups have warned that the Supreme Court is likely to reject the petition, arguing that the Constitution reserves election-procedure decisions for the states unless Congress provides clear guidance.