Supreme Court Declines to Intervene in California Mail Ballot Dispute
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an emergency request by the Trump administration to set aside thousands of California mail ballots flagged as potentially cast by non-citizens, as voting continued on the final day of the midterm elections.
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 did not provide a detailed rationale, a common practice in urgent rulings.
State officials argued that the list supplied by the Justice Department contained numerous errors and that removing the ballots at this stage would disenfranchise eligible voters. California election officials noted that all 23 million registered voters receive mail ballots and that processing the challenged ballots now would be logistically infeasible.
"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 denied the Justice Department's request, warning that the action could disenfranchise citizens. During a hearing, District Judge Trina Thompson asked Justice Department attorney Kenneth Kao if the data list had a high error rate. Kao responded, "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 the possibility of some inaccuracies.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta criticized the appeal as an attempt to undermine the election process. Lower courts have similarly warned that separating the ballots could disrupt the midterm election and erode public confidence.
The Supreme Court's refusal follows a series of recent rulings against the administration's 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.