Justice Department asks Supreme Court to order California to set aside mail ballots from about 20,000 people it says may not be citizens
The Trump administration filed an emergency request with the US Supreme Court on Monday, the day before the midterm elections, after a federal judge and an appeals court panel refused to order California officials to separate the ballots.
The Trump administration asked the US Supreme Court on Monday 2 November to require California election workers to set aside mail ballots cast by more than 20,000 people the federal government says may not be US citizens, CBS News and AP reported. The emergency request came the day before Tuesday’s midterm elections.
The Justice Department had sent California’s secretary of state and the top election official in Los Angeles County a list of about 20,000 registered voters it said were not citizens, and demanded that any ballots they returned be held back and not counted until their citizenship was checked, according to CBS News. State and county officials have raised concerns about the accuracy of the list and the risk of eligible voters losing their votes, CBS reported.
On Wednesday, US District Judge David Carter refused the administration’s request for a temporary restraining order. “Individuals who have met the requirements of California’s voter registration laws must not be deprived of a core right merely because of unfounded allegations stemming from a procedure rife with uncertainty and errors,” he wrote. On Friday a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to deny the request.
In the filing, Solicitor General D. John Sauer called the request a “modest remedy” and wrote: “Once California commingles the challenged ballots with lawful ones, there is no way to get the challenged ballots back.”
More than 6 million mail ballots had been returned in California as of Sunday, according to the secretary of state’s office, CBS reported. Under California law, voters must attest that they are US citizens when registering, NBC News noted. As of about 17:30 GMT on Monday, the Supreme Court had not been reported to have acted on the request.
Sources
- Trump asks Supreme Court to intervene in bid to get California to set aside ballots from 20,000 alleged noncitizens · CBS News
- Trump administration appeals to Supreme Court in California mail ballots case · AP News
- DOJ asks Supreme Court to weigh in on California ballot demands · NPR
- Election 2026 live updates · NBC News
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