Trump Team Wants Supreme Court to Hold 20,000 California Votes for Citizenship Check
The emergency request aims to remove votes from noncitizen suspects before Tuesday's midterms, a move California officials say is now logistically impossible.
By Ana Castro ·
The Trump administration filed an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court on Monday. The request seeks to remove approximately 20,000 mail ballots from California's midterm election count.
The federal government suspects the voters who cast these ballots may not be U.S. citizens. Officials argue the votes should be set aside until citizenship status is verified. The administration labeled the request a limited injunction. This would direct California to separate the disputed ballots from the rest of the pile.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer warned the court that the ballots are at risk of being mixed with lawful votes. He wrote, "Once California commingles the challenged ballots with lawful ones, there is no way to get the challenged ballots back." The Justice Department wants the case resolved quickly to prevent this permanent commingling.
Lower courts have so far blocked the federal push. A district court judge denied the initial request, warning it could disenfranchise citizens in the Tuesday election. Judge David O. Carter, nominated by President Bill Clinton, stated that allowing the executive branch to discount votes based on unproven allegations puts democracy in danger. He noted the move would wreak havoc on the election process.
A split appeals court panel upheld the district judge's order. One Trump-appointed judge and one Biden-appointed judge voted to keep the ballots in the count. A third Trump-appointed judge dissented, arguing that California's refusal to separate the ballots encourages a violation of federal law.
California election officials contend the federal list of suspected noncitizens is highly unreliable. They say it likely includes many confirmed U.S. citizens. Voting in the state began in early October. All roughly 23 million registered voters received a mail ballot. Hundreds of thousands have already been processed.
State officials argue it is logistically impossible to find and remove the specific disputed ballots now. The Trump administration has prioritized identifying noncitizen voters this year. This group is rare in U.S. elections. The Supreme Court has previously rejected the president's push to restrict mail ballots ahead of midterms.
The high court has granted emergency appeals to the administration multiple times during his second term. The justices will now decide whether to pause the counting process for the 20,000 disputed ballots before the election is finalized.
