November 2, 2026
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's administration appealed to the Supreme Court on Monday in its push to set aside thousands of California mail ballots from people the federal government suspects may not be citizens.
The emergency appeal the day before the midterm elections came after a divided appeals court rejected the request to set aside some 20,000 disputed ballots.
The federal government says those ballots should not be counted until the voters’ status can be verified. California officials say the list is highly unreliable and likely includes many people who are U.S. citizens.
The Republican Trump administration has prioritized identifying noncitizen voters this year.
A district court judge denied the Justice Department's request and warned that the demand could disenfranchise citizens in Tuesday's midterm elections to determine control of Congress.
The Justice Department asked the high court for a “limited injunction” that would direct California to set aside the ballots while the case plays out.
“Once California commingles the challenged ballots with lawful ones, there is no way to get the challenged ballots back,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote.
Voting has been underway in California, a largely Democratic state, since early October. All of the state’s roughly 23 million registered voters are mailed a ballot. Hundreds of thousands of ballots have already been processed. California election officials have said that finding and setting aside the challenged ballots now would be logistically impossible.
Lower courts have sided with the state, with U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, who was nominated by President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, warning that segregating ballots would “wreak havoc” on the midterm elections and erode trust in the democratic process.
A 2-1 appeals court panel upheld his order, with one judge appointed by Trump and another appointed by President Joe Biden, a Democrat, voting in favor. The third judge on the panel, also appointed by Trump, argued in a dissent that California’s unwillingness to separate the ballots encourages the “violation of federal law.”
The Justice Department has sought to move the case along quickly, unsuccessfully asking an appeals court to intervene early.
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