Trump Asks Supreme Court to Block 20,000 California Ballots on Eve of Midterms

Photo: Apu Gomes/Getty Images via AFP

Donald Trump's administration has asked the US Supreme Court to stop California counting mail-in ballots from more than 20,000 voters it claims are not US citizens. The emergency request landed on Monday, just one day before Americans vote in the midterm elections.

Reuters reported that the Justice Department wants California to set aside ballots from voters on a list drawn up by the Department of Homeland Security until each person's citizenship is checked. The department warned that once the disputed ballots are mixed in with lawful votes, there would be no way to pull them back out.

California is pushing back hard. The state says the list is unreliable and could include thousands of US citizens. Voting has been under way since early October, with ballots mailed to around 23 million registered voters and hundreds of thousands already processed. State officials say it would be nearly impossible to separate the ballots in question at this stage.

Two lower courts have already said no. Al Jazeera reported that District Judge David Carter rejected the request on 28 October, raising concerns about the reliability of the data on the list. He wrote that if the executive can discount votes and threaten an ongoing election on unproven claims, democracy is in danger. The San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals also refused the request on Friday, pointing to the state's power over its own election procedures.

The case now sits with Justice Elena Kagan, who handles emergency requests from California. She has not set a deadline yet for California to respond, and it is not clear when the court will rule. The court rejected an earlier effort to restrict mail-in voting in September.

Behind the legal fight is a simple political fact. California is the most populous US state and a Democratic stronghold, with 52 seats in the House of Representatives, more than any other state. Trump's fellow Republicans are fighting to keep control of Congress in Tuesday's vote, and Democrats need a net gain of four House seats to win a majority in the chamber.

The key figures:

• More than 20,000 registered voters on the federal list
• 23 million registered voters mailed ballots in California
• 15 October, when the Justice Department sued California
• 28 October, when Judge Carter denied the request
• 52 House seats held by California, the most of any state

The administration has made alleged noncitizen voting a central theme in the run-up to the vote, and has told election officials in all 50 states they could face criminal prosecution if they knowingly let noncitizens stay on their rolls. Studies and state audits have found ineligible voting, including by noncitizens, is rare. A Reuters investigation in July found just 129 cases in which noncitizens had been charged with voting illegally since a 1996 law made it a criminal offence. The same election season has produced sharp contests elsewhere, from Bulgaria's presidential runoff to the diplomacy around the Iran talks, where the vote itself shapes what happens next.

Sources

• Reuters, Trump administration takes California ballot fight to Supreme Court
• Al Jazeera, Trump asks Supreme Court to block 20,000 California ballots before midterms
• Geo News (Reuters), Trump administration takes California ballot fight to Supreme Court

What happens next is the Supreme Court's decision, and whether it comes before or after the midterm votes are counted.

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