Supreme Court Lets California Protect Mail Ballots as Trump Administration’s Vote-Suppression Push Falters
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The U.S. Supreme Court refused the Trump administration’s emergency bid to throw out thousands of California mail ballots flagged as possibly cast by non-citizens, allowing voting to continue on the final day of the midterm elections while courts continued to reject the administration’s election attacks.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied an emergency petition from the Trump administration seeking to suspend about 20,000 mail ballots in California pending verification of the voters' citizenship status. The high court gave no detailed explanation, as is common in urgent rulings, but the result was a clear setback for a sweeping effort that critics say was designed to suppress lawful votes.
State officials said the list supplied by the Justice Department was riddled with errors and that removing the ballots at this stage would disenfranchise eligible voters. California election officials emphasized that all 23 million registered voters receive mail ballots and that sorting through the challenged ballots now would be logistically impossible without wreaking havoc on the election process.
"The Executive Branch has likely violated the Constitution's Elections Clause, which commits authority over election rules to the states and Congress alone," wrote Chief Judge James Boasberg in a related decision.
Earlier, a district court judge had already rejected the Justice Department's request, warning that the move could disenfranchise citizens. During a hearing, District Judge Trina Thompson asked Justice Department attorney Kenneth Kao whether the data list had a high error rate. Kao replied, "That's a fair statement. That's why we ask for the registrars' aid in verifying these are all valid voters."
Federal prosecutor Bill Essayli, who leads the Justice Department's Los Angeles office, said the administration was confident the individuals on the list were not entitled to vote, while acknowledging that some inaccuracies were possible. California Attorney General Rob Bonta denounced the appeal as a direct attempt to undermine the election process. Lower courts have likewise warned that separating the ballots could disrupt the midterm election and erode public confidence in democracy.
The Supreme Court's refusal comes after a series of recent defeats for the administration in election-related lawsuits, including a September decision that blocked a nationwide effort to restrict mail voting. As of Monday, more than 24 million mail-in ballots had been cast nationwide, underscoring the scale of voting that the administration tried to interfere with.