WorldAmericas
US Supreme Court rejects Trump administration bid to set aside 20,000 California ballots on midterms eve
In a one-line order with no dissents noted, the justices refused to make California separate mail ballots cast by people on a federal list of alleged noncitizens. Lower courts had called the list error-prone.
Key points
- The Supreme Court denied the Justice Department's emergency request in an unsigned order, with no dissents noted.
- The administration wanted ballots from about 20,000 alleged noncitizens set aside in all 58 California counties.
- A district judge had called the federal list 'rife with uncertainty and errors'.
The US Supreme Court on Monday refused the Trump administration’s request to make California set aside the mail ballots of about 20,000 people the government says are noncitizens, a day before Americans vote in the midterm elections.
The court issued a one-line, unsigned order with no dissents noted. It ruled on the Justice Department’s emergency application without asking California officials to respond first.
The administration said last month that about 20,000 noncitizens were on California’s voter rolls. It sent letters with lists of names to all 58 California counties and demanded that their ballots be kept apart. When state and county officials refused, the Justice Department sued them, along with Dean Logan, the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder.
State and local officials questioned whether the list was accurate and warned that US citizens could lose their votes if they complied. US District Judge David Carter turned down a temporary restraining order last week, saying the federal process for identifying alleged noncitizens was “rife with uncertainty and errors”. A divided Ninth Circuit appeals court also declined to step in, which sent the Justice Department to the Supreme Court.
California has more than 23 million registered voters. More than 6 million mail ballots have already come back, and voting has been under way since early October.
The California case is one of several fights over the vote. Federal prosecutors have demanded that Washington state set aside ballots from more than 400 people; Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said the list included “many” US citizens. In Alaska, a judge on Sunday threw out a Justice Department suit to stop certification of the Senate result if Senator Dan Sullivan loses to Mary Peltola.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that large numbers of noncitizens vote, though confirmed cases are rare. The Justice Department has charged more than 200 people it says voted illegally in past elections.