Supreme Court rejects Trump's bid to set aside 20,000 votes in California on election eve

Washington.— The United States Supreme Court on Monday rejected the Trump administration's emergency request to force California to set aside the ballots of about 20,000 registered voters who, according to the administration, may not be U.S. citizens, in a ruling issued just hours after the request was filed and on the eve of the November 3 midterm elections.

The decision, contained in a one-sentence order with no explanation, recorded no public dissent. The justices did not even ask California for a response before ruling, a step that analysts say usually signals the court did not seriously consider the request.

The Justice Department had asked California to separate mail-in ballots linked to a voter list drawn from immigration data and not to count them until each voter's citizenship was verified. California refused, calling the method used to build the list "highly suspect," while defending its existing safeguards to protect election integrity.

Every court that had examined the case had already rejected it. Federal Judge David Carter denied the government's request on October 28, writing that "never before in American history" had the federal government tried, on the eve of an election, to "coerce a state and local government to abandon their own Constitutional election procedures and bend to the will of the Executive Branch."

On Friday, October 30, a divided panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals also ruled against the administration, 2-1, warning that using the federal list could prevent valid votes from being counted and jeopardize the Los Angeles County election. Judge Patrick Bumatay dissented, calling the government's request reasonable.

The Constitution gives states and Congress, not the executive branch, responsibility for regulating federal elections. With the Supreme Court's refusal, California will follow its usual procedures for processing ballots, although the Justice Department's underlying lawsuit, filed October 15, continues. Trump has alleged without evidence that noncitizens influence outcomes by voting illegally.

Photo: Justia

Source: USA TODAY