Supreme Court Rejects Trump Administration Bid to Set Aside 20,000 California Ballots

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected the Trump administration's 11th-hour demand for California to set aside thousands of disputed mail ballots ahead of Tuesday's midterm elections, MyNewsLA reported Monday. The ruling closes, for now, the emergency appeal the Justice Department filed after lower courts declined to order the ballots separated.

The dispute concerned roughly 20,000 California voters whose citizenship the Justice Department questioned. The department sued California and Los Angeles County on Oct. 15 after state officials rebuffed a 48-hour deadline to review its list of people it called likely noncitizens, and it asked the courts to require that ballots from those voters be set aside and not counted until eligibility was verified.

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter rejected the department's request for a temporary restraining order on Oct. 28, finding the government was unlikely to succeed, that the requested remedy would likely violate several federal voting laws, and that its claimed emergency was due to its own timing. The Ninth Circuit had earlier rejected an appeal filed before Carter ruled as premature. Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean C. Logan welcomed Carter's ruling, saying it affirmed the county's administration of the Nov. 3 election under established state and federal procedures.

Monday's Supreme Court rejection means California's ordinary ballot-processing rules remain in force as polls open Tuesday. Los Angeles County's 646 vote centers will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day, and ballots cast by voters on the disputed list will be handled the same way as every other ballot unless a court orders otherwise.