Supreme Court Rejects DOJ Petition to Intervene in California’s 20,000 ‘Likely’ Noncitizen Ballot Dispute

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a request from the Trump administration’s Justice Department to temporarily block the counting of more than 20,000 mail ballots from suspected noncitizens in California. 

Last month, the department demanded that California temporarily set aside the ballots for the midterm elections until the citizenship of registered voters could be verified. 

After losing its case in lower courts, the DOJ requested the Supreme Court intervene one day before Election Day, but the court denied the request.

The department, in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security, determined in October that more than 20,000 registered voters in the state are likely aliens; all voters in California are mailed ballots. Once a vote is cast, it generally can’t be uncounted.

“Once illegally cast ballots are counted and commingled with lawful votes, the resulting harm is impossible to remedy,” the Justice Department wrote in a filing in the case, according to Reuters.

California Secretary of State Shirley Weber says the state has safeguards to prevent noncitizens from voting, and the state has argued it could disenfranchise the 20,000 identified registered voters by setting ballots aside. However, the DOJ is not asking the ballots be tossed, but counted only after verification.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and district court rejected the administration’s lawsuit against the state, asserting that states have the primary authority over elections.

Foreshadowing the high court’s potential reluctance to take the case a day before the election, the Supreme Court in September rejected a Missouri appeal about redrawn maps, saying that changing the map “in the midst of an ongoing election would usher in electoral chaos.” Earlier that month, the court rejected the Trump administration’s effort to limit mail-in voting, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, in a concurring opinion, noted that “state and local officials do not have sufficient time to reasonably implement the rule before the elections.”

The Justice Department sued California last month and cited the supremacy clause of the Constitution as well as a 1996 federal law that bans noncitizen voting in federal elections.

U.S. District Judge David Carter, appointed by President Bill Clinton, denied the administration’s request on Oct. 28.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Carter on Friday on state power grounds, stating disenfranchisement “could jeopardize the county’s entire election,” Reuters reported.

This story was updated from an earlier version to include the Supreme Court’s decision.

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