Supreme Court rejects Trump ballot bid

The US Supreme Court blocked the Trump administration from setting aside 20,000 California ballots on Monday, November 2, one day before the midterm election.

The high court issued a single-sentence order denying the Justice Department's application for an injunction while its appeal was pending. Justice Kagan received the application and referred it to the full court. The ruling leaves two lower court decisions intact. Those courts had already rejected the administration's request to separate the ballots.

The dispute centers on a list of 20,000 registered voters in the country's most populous state. The Justice Department alleged these individuals were likely non-citizens. In October, the department wrote to California's secretary of state and the Los Angeles County Registrar. It demanded that ballots associated with these voters be set aside. About a week later, armed Department of Homeland Security officials delivered letters to county officials and employees. The letters threatened criminal charges if the ballots were not separated.

California election authorities challenged the federal method for identifying suspected non-citizens. They stated the list contained numerous errors. Officials warned that eligible voters could lose their votes if the ballots were separated while voting was already underway. More than six million postal ballots had arrived by Sunday night, according to the California secretary of state's office. Approximately 23 million people are registered to vote in California.

The Justice Department argued in a 22-page brief that votes cast by non-citizens could undermine the value of valid votes. The legal effort is part of a long-running campaign by Trump and his administration against alleged widespread voter fraud. Research shows such fraud is extremely rare. Trump has repeatedly accused Democrats of allowing immigrants to vote illegally and has blamed postal voting permitted in many Democratic states.

District Judge David Carter sharply criticized the government's actions in a ruling last week. He described the move as an ongoing pattern of attempted election interference. Carter said the federal government's attempt to pressure state and local authorities into abandoning constitutional election procedures immediately before an election was unprecedented in American history.