Supreme Court denies Trump administration's request to separate alleged non-citizen ballots in California
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The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an emergency request by the Trump administration to isolate up to 20,000 mail-in ballots in California that officials say could belong to non-citizens, leaving the state's existing voting procedures unchanged.
The Supreme Court on Monday denied an emergency petition from the Trump administration seeking to separate as many as 20,000 mail-in ballots in California that federal officials alleged might have been cast by non-citizens. The brief order provided no explanation and was issued without first soliciting California's response, a departure from the court's usual practice.
California election officials have opposed the Justice Department's intervention, noting that state law already prohibits non-citizens from voting and questioning the accuracy of the federal data. The administration has warned state officials of possible prosecution for allowing non-citizens to vote, a threat a federal judge recently ordered the Justice Department to cease.
While elections are administered by local authorities, the administration argues that a federal statute barring non-citizen voting gives it grounds to intervene. The claim that millions of non-citizens vote in U.S. elections has been repeatedly made without supporting evidence, and experts say such instances are rare.
Previous attempts to verify non-citizen registrations have encountered setbacks; for example, Nevada officials confirmed that individuals identified as non-citizens on a federal list were, in fact, citizens. In California, thousands of mail-in ballots have already been processed, and the verification process discards voter identification details after confirming signatures, making retroactive identification of alleged non-citizen votes impractical.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also rejected the administration's claim, finding no congressional intent for the federal non-citizen voting ban to override state election laws.