Supreme Court Hears Case on 20,000 California Mail Ballots

The Trump administration filed an emergency appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to pause the counting of roughly 20,000 mail ballots in California. The White House wants the high court to order the state to set these votes aside until the federal government can verify the voters' citizenship status. This move comes one day before the midterm elections, a date when control of Congress will be decided.

The legal battle began when the Justice Department argued that the ballots should not be counted if the voters are not U.S. citizens. Federal officials stated that the list of disputed voters is necessary to protect the integrity of the election. However, California election officials pushed back, calling the list highly unreliable. They argued that it likely contains many people who are already U.S. citizens.

A lower court initially rejected the federal request. U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, a Democrat nominated by President Bill Clinton, denied the Justice Department's ask. He warned that removing these ballots would cause confusion and damage public trust in the democratic process. Carter noted that if the executive branch can discount votes based on unproven claims, the stability of the election is at risk.

The case moved to the appeals court, where a divided panel upheld the district judge's ruling. Two judges voted to keep the ballots in the count, while one judge in the dissent argued that California was failing to follow federal law. The dissenting judge was appointed by President Trump, as was one of the judges who voted to uphold the lower court. The judge who voted with the majority was appointed by President Joe Biden.

Voting in California has been active since early October. The state mails ballots to all of its approximately 23 million registered voters. Hundreds of thousands of these ballots have already been processed and counted. State officials say it is now too late to find and separate the disputed ballots without causing major logistical problems.

Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote to the Supreme Court that the situation is urgent. He stated that once California mixes the challenged ballots with valid ones, there is no way to retrieve them. The administration is asking for a limited injunction to stop the state from counting these specific votes while the legal case continues.

This is the latest in a series of emergency appeals filed by the Trump administration in his second term. The Supreme Court has granted emergency relief in several recent cases, though it previously rejected a similar push to restrict mail ballots ahead of these midterms.