Trump Appeals to Supreme Court to Block Counting of 20,000 Alleged Noncitizen California Ballots
The Trump administration seeks Supreme Court intervention to force California to isolate ballots from 20,000 suspected noncitizens before Tuesday's election.
POLICY WIRE — Washington, D.C. — The Trump administration filed a petition with the Supreme Court on Monday, demanding that California election officials isolate mail ballots from thousands of individuals the government claims are not. United States citizens.
This emergency request from the Justice Department follows a Friday ruling by a federal appeals court that refused to order the state segregate ballots cast by more than 20,000 people identified on a government list of suspected non-citizens.
Data from the California secretary of state’s office indicates that over 6 million mail ballots have been received across the state as of Sunday, with voting operations having commenced at the beginning of October.
The high-court appeal arrives as a rapid legal conflict intensifies ahead of Tuesday’s elections. To date, the Trump administration has failed to secure lower court orders requiring the isolation of the ballots in question.
In the filing to the Supreme Court, Solicitor General D. John Sauer described the government’s goal as a “modest remedy” intended to prevent non-citizen ballots from deasing or diluting valid votes.>
Sauer argued that once California mixes the disputed ballots with legitimate ones, it becomes impossible to retrieve them. He asserted that the only method to maintain the district court’s authority to provide legal relief to the United States after a full trial is to segregate the ballots immediately.
The legal friction began when the Justice Department issued communications to the California secretary of state and the lead election official in Los Angeles County. These letters contained a list of 20,000 individuals the department asserts are registered voters but are not U.S. citizens, and the government demanded that any ballots returned by these individuals be held back from tabulation until citizenship is verified.
State officials have voiced concerns regarding the accuracy of the provided list and the risk that eligible voters could be disenfranchised.
The Justice Department initiated litigation against California and Dean Logan, the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder and county clerk, seeking a mandate for the segregation of the ballots.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge David Carter denied the administration’s motion for a temporary restraining order to stop election workers from counting ballots from the alleged noncitizens.
Carter, who was appointed by President Clinton, stated that constitutional rights and democracy are at risk and that public interest supports their protection. He noted that people who fulfilled California’s voter registration requirements cannot lose a fundamental right based solely on unproven claims originating from a process marked by errors and uncertainty.
Reporting by Policy-Wire (PW)em>
