Supreme Court refuses to stop California ballot count as Trump administration push meets resistance
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The U.S. Supreme Court declined the Justice Department’s attempt to freeze counting of more than 20,000 California mail-in ballots over unverified citizenship claims, allowing the state to keep moving through its election process.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to issue a limited injunction that the Justice Department had sought to stop California from counting more than 20,000 mail-in ballots pending verification of voter citizenship. The request, filed by the Justice Department under the Trump administration, rested on allegations that the ballots might include non-U.S. citizens rather than any proven evidence.
Earlier, a federal lawsuit filed in October was rejected by a California district court, and Los Angeles District Judge David Carter warned that singling out ballots could "wreak havoc" on the election process and further erode public confidence. Carter wrote that allowing the executive branch to discount votes on unproven allegations posed a direct threat to democracy.
The Justice Department’s list of suspected non-citizen voters was compiled by the Department of Homeland Security. California officials said the methodology was likely flawed and contained errors, noting that thousands of U.S. citizens appeared on the list. A federal judge recently ordered the department to share the list with an immigrant-rights group and a UCLA voting-rights watchdog.
California, which conducts early voting weeks ahead of the midterms, has processed hundreds of thousands of ballots and is not considered a competitive state for the Republican Party in the upcoming elections. Governor Gavin Newsom, a vocal critic of the administration, warned against any interference in the state’s voting procedures.