The U.S. Justice Department has asked the Supreme Court for a limited injunction to prevent California from counting over 20,000 mail-in ballots suspected of belonging to non-U.S. citizens.
The Trump administration has appealed to the Supreme Court to seek a "limited injunction" regarding more than 20,000 mail-in ballots in California. The U.S. Justice Department (DoJ) is requesting that the state of California "stop commingling suspected illegal ballots with legal ones" pending the verification of voter status.
The DoJ, led by Todd Blanche, claims to possess a list compiled by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that documents non-U.S. citizens on California's voter rolls. This follows a mid-October lawsuit filed by the federal government based on these allegations.
Lower courts have previously rejected these efforts:
In his October ruling, Los Angeles District Judge David Carter stated, "If the Executive can discount votes and threaten an ongoing election due to unproven allegations, then our democracy is in danger." Judge Carter also wrote, "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 elections procedures and bend to the will of the executive branch."
California officials have defended the state's election integrity, stating that the process used by the Trump administration to identify non-citizen voters is "likely flawed and full of errors."
Following a court order, the DoJ shared its list with an immigrant rights group and a voting rights watchdog from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). A legal filing based on an analysis of that list found that "thousands of US citizens on the list appear to be inexplicably flagged as ineligible to vote."
California is a largely Democratic state where all of the roughly 23 million registered voters are mailed a ballot. Early voting has been underway in the state since early October, and hundreds of thousands of ballots have already been processed.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has criticized the administration's actions and announced the deployment of election law experts, poll observers, and a helpline for voters to report attempts of intimidation or interference at the polls.
The Supreme Court's response to this emergency appeal remains unclear, and it is uncertain if a ruling will be issued in time to affect the midterm elections scheduled for Tuesday.
Sources
This article was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Company claims are reported as claims. Cover image is AI-generated.
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