California ballots: US Supreme Court rejects Trump administration request

California ballots challenged by President Donald Trump's administration will not be set aside under its emergency request after the US Supreme Court declined to intervene on Monday, November 2. The decision came immediately before the midterm elections, which will determine control of Congress.

The dispute concerned roughly 20,000 registered voters whom federal officials alleged were likely noncitizens. The administration wanted their mail ballots separated and withheld from counting while officials checked citizenship.

California disputed the reliability of the federal list. State officials argued that errors in the data could deprive eligible citizens of their votes, while the Justice Department maintained that its proposal would allow valid ballots to be counted after verification.

Lower courts had also refused intervention

The Supreme Court gave no explanation for rejecting the application, and no justice recorded a public dissent. Its decision followed unsuccessful attempts by the administration to obtain relief in lower courts.

US District Judge David Carter had rejected the request on October 28, questioning the accuracy of the government's information and warning about disruption to an election already underway. An appeals court subsequently upheld that outcome by a two-to-one majority.

The California ballots dispute also raised questions about the respective election powers of state and federal authorities. California argued that its procedures already included safeguards against ineligible voting and mechanisms to cancel registrations when a voter was found ineligible.

Voting by mail had been underway since early October. California sends ballots to its approximately 23 million registered voters, and election officials said locating and separating the disputed ballots at that stage would be impractical.

The administration has made suspected noncitizen voting a priority, although the reports cite research and state audits finding such voting rare. The Supreme Court had separately refused an effort to restrict postal voting nationwide in September.

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