Supreme Court Rejects Trump Administration Push to Set Aside 20,000 California Ballots on Election Eve
Acting hours before the midterms, the justices denied the Justice Department's emergency request to force California to segregate mail ballots from more than 20,000 voters the administration alleges are likely noncitizens — with no noted dissent and no explanation.
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a last-minute bid by President Donald Trump's administration to force California to set aside mail-in ballots from more than 20,000 registered voters who federal officials allege are likely noncitizens. The Associated Press reported the court refused to intervene in the case on the eve of the pivotal midterm elections, which will decide control of Congress for the last two years of Trump's second term.
The speed of the ruling underscored its finality for Tuesday. Reuters reported that the justices denied the Justice Department's emergency request just hours after it was filed, in a brief one-sentence order that offered no explanation, as is common in emergency matters. No justice publicly dissented, and the court did not ask California for a response before ruling — a step that, when taken, usually signals serious consideration of an emergency case.
The dispute centers on a list of 20,000 registered voters amassed by the Department of Homeland Security and sent to California officials and to Los Angeles County officials. The Justice Department sued California on October 15, claiming the state is unlawfully preventing enforcement of a 1996 federal law, 18 U.S.C. section 611, that makes it a criminal offense for noncitizens to vote in federal elections. The administration asked that any ballots cast by people on the list be separated and not counted until those voters are verified as citizens.
Every court to hear the request before the justices had refused it. US District Judge David Carter rejected the Justice Department's bid on October 28, and on Friday a divided 9th Circuit panel ruled 2-1 the same way: Judges Mark Bennett and Gabriel Sanchez wrote that there is a material risk the requested relief would result in disenfranchisement and could jeopardize Los Angeles County's entire election, citing the Purcell principle that election rules should not be altered on the eve of an election and the Constitution's assignment of election administration to the states. Judge Patrick Bumatay dissented, calling the government's request reasonable. NPR reported that county officials have found many people on the list did not have active registrations and were not mailed ballots, and that UCLA Voting Rights Project data scientists granted access to the list found 42 percent of its names do not appear on California's current voter roll.
Reuters noted that a Reuters investigation published in July found just 129 cases in which noncitizens had been charged with voting illegally since the passage of the 1996 law. With the Supreme Court declining to intervene, California's existing ballot procedures remain in place as voters decide races up and down the ballot on Tuesday.
