Trump administration asks Supreme Court to halt counting of 20,000 California mail ballots

The Trump administration filed an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court on Monday to stop the counting of approximately 20,000 mail-in ballots in California. The federal government wants these specific ballots set aside until it can verify the citizenship status of the voters.

This legal move follows a rejection by an appeals court that previously denied the request to remove the ballots. The Department of Justice argues that the ballots should not be counted while it investigates whether the voters are citizens. California officials counter that the federal list of suspected non-citizens is unreliable and likely contains many people who hold citizenship.

The dispute began after the administration made identifying non-citizen voters a priority this year. A district court judge had already rejected the Justice Department's initial request. That judge warned that removing the ballots could deprive citizens of their right to vote in the November 3 midterm elections.

The Justice Department asked the Supreme Court for a limited stay. This order would require California to stop mixing the disputed ballots with legal ones while the case proceeds. The department failed to get an earlier intervention from the appeals court, so it moved directly to the highest court.

Voting in California has been underway since early October. The state has roughly 23 million registered voters who receive mail ballots. Hundreds of thousands of these ballots have already been processed. Lower courts have generally sided with California in this conflict.

District Judge David O. Carter wrote that the executive branch cannot dismiss votes based on unproven accusations. Carter, nominated by President Bill Clinton, stated that such action puts the democracy in danger. He noted that separating the ballots would cause havoc in the election.

The Trump administration has won several emergency appeals at the Supreme Court recently. However, the justices previously rejected the president's attempt to restrict mail-in ballots before the election. The Supreme Court will now decide whether to pause the counting of the 20,000 disputed ballots.