Supreme Court Rejects Trump Administration Bid to Set Aside California Ballots on Election Eve

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected the Trump administration's last-minute attempt to force California to segregate ballots cast by about 20,000 registered voters the federal government alleges may not be U.S. citizens, the Desert Sun reported. The court declined the Justice Department's emergency request on the eve of the November 3 midterm elections, and none of the justices publicly dissented.

The ruling leaves California's existing ballot procedures in place as voters decide races that will help determine control of Congress. The Justice Department had asked California to segregate mail ballots associated with people on a federal list and hold them from being counted while the government challenged the voters' eligibility; lower courts had repeatedly refused to impose those requirements while voting was underway, the Desert Sun reported.

The road to Monday's order ran through two lower courts. U.S. District Judge David Carter rejected the administration's request on October 28, writing, as the Desert Sun quoted him: 'Never before in American history has the federal government, on the eve of an election, sought to coerce a state and local government to abandon their own Constitutional election procedures and bend to the will of the Executive Branch.' A divided panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with California on October 30, warning that forcing the state to use the list could prevent valid ballots from being counted and jeopardize Los Angeles County's election; Circuit Judge Patrick Bumatay dissented, calling the government's request reasonable.

The underlying fight is over a list assembled by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and Homeland Security Investigations from California voter-roll data obtained over the summer, the Desert Sun reported; the Justice Department sued California on October 15 under the federal law, 18 U.S.C. 611, that prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal elections. California says it already has safeguards and called the federal process for building the list 'highly suspect,' and the reports note the administration has alleged, without evidence, that noncitizens are influencing outcomes by voting illegally. The underlying lawsuit can continue, but the emergency order the administration wanted before Election Day is denied.