Supreme Court Leaves 20,000 California Ballots in Play Amid Midterm Crunch

The Supreme Court rejected the Trump administration's request to pause the counting of 20,000 mail-in ballots in California. The ruling was issued on Monday, leaving the votes in the total as the state heads into Tuesday's midterm elections. The high court did not provide a detailed explanation for its decision, a common practice for emergency applications. This move marks the latest in a series of election-related legal battles facing the administration in the final days before voters cast their ballots.

The dispute centers on a list of 20,000 voters that the Republican administration identified as likely noncitizens. The Justice Department asked the justices to set these specific ballots aside until citizenship could be verified. Officials in California argued that the list contained numerous errors and that segregating the ballots at this late stage would effectively disenfranchise legal citizens. The state noted that hundreds of thousands of ballots have already been processed since voting began in early October.

Federal judges have repeatedly sided with California against the federal government's intervention. A district court judge previously denied the Justice Department's request, warning that the demand could disrupt the election process. That order was upheld by a split appeals court panel. Chief Judge James Boasberg ruled on Monday that the administration's last-minute demands violated the U.S. Constitution. He stated that the Executive Branch likely violated the Elections Clause, which reserves authority over election rules for the states and Congress.

Department of Justice attorneys have defended their position while acknowledging data challenges. Bill Essayli, the federal prosecutor for the Los Angeles office, expressed high confidence that the individuals on the list were not entitled to vote. He insisted the process was not based on speculation, though he conceded later that errors might exist on the list. Attorney Kenneth Kao acknowledged a high error rate during a hearing, stating that the department sought the help of election registrars to verify the validity of the voters.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta criticized the appeal as a desperate attempt to undermine the election and the rule of law. The administration, however, characterized the request as modest, arguing it would allow for the verification of citizenship before final counts. The Justice Department has faced a series of court losses in its push to identify noncitizen voters, a group that is statistically rare in the state.

The midterms will determine control of Congress for the final two years of Trump's second term. The Supreme Court's refusal to intervene keeps the 20,000 ballots in the count. All of California's roughly 23 million registered voters received mail ballots. The state's election officials have said that finding and setting aside the specific challenged ballots now would be logistically impossible.