Supreme Court declines to pause California mail ballots ahead of midterms

The Supreme Court rejected the Trump administration's bid to pause mail-in ballots from 20,000 California voters on Monday. The justices declined to intervene in the case just one day before midterm elections that will determine control of Congress for the final two years of the president's second term.

The administration asked the high court to set aside the challenged ballots until it could verify the voters' citizenship status. The group was flagged by the Republican administration as likely noncitizens on the state's voter rolls. California officials argued the list contained errors and that holding the ballots would effectively disenfranchise legal voters.

The Court did not provide a written reason for its decision, a standard practice for emergency appeals. This ruling follows a previous rejection in September of a broader push by the president to restrict mail ballots nationwide. The justices have allowed the administration's emergency appeals to proceed in other areas of the docket.

Lower courts had already blocked the Justice Department's efforts. A district court judge denied the initial request, warning that the action could disenfranchise citizens. Chief Judge James Boasberg of a federal court in Washington ruled that the administration's last-minute demands violated the U.S. Constitution. He noted that the Elections Clause assigns authority over election rules to states and Congress alone.

During a hearing, District Court Judge Trina Thompson questioned a Justice Department attorney about the accuracy of the data. The judge asked if the department agreed there was a high error rate. Attorney Kenneth Kao replied that it was a fair statement and said the department sought help from registrars to verify the voters. Bill Essayli, the federal prosecutor for the Justice Department's Los Angeles office, told reporters he was confident the people on the list were not entitled to vote. He later conceded that errors might exist on the list.

Voting began in early October, and all of California's roughly 23 million registered voters received a mailed ballot. Election officials stated that hundreds of thousands of ballots had already been processed. They said finding and separating the challenged ballots now would be logistically impossible.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta criticized the appeal as an attempt to undermine the elections. Lower court judges echoed concerns that the process would disrupt the democratic process. U.S. District Judge David O. Carter wrote that if the executive branch could discount votes based on unproven allegations, the democracy was in danger. A two to one appeals court panel upheld Carter's order, with judges appointed by both President Trump and former President Biden voting in favor.

The administration characterized its request as a modest measure that would allow legal votes to be counted eventually. The Justice Department has faced a series of court losses in its effort to identify noncitizen voters. Officials acknowledged that the list they provided to California election officials was not entirely reliable. The department had sought to move the case quickly but failed to secure early intervention from the appeals court.