Trump Team Urges Supreme Court to Pause Counting of 20,000 California Ballots

Approximately 20,000 mail ballots in California are at the center of an emergency appeal filed by the Trump administration with the Supreme Court on Monday. The Justice Department is asking the high court to issue a limited injunction that would direct the state to set these specific votes aside until the federal government can verify whether the voters are citizens. The request comes one day before the midterm elections, which will determine control of Congress.

The appeal follows a divided decision by a federal appeals court that rejected the administration's earlier bid to pause the counting process. The government argues that ballots from individuals suspected of being noncitizens should not be counted until their status is confirmed. In contrast, California officials contend the federal list is highly unreliable and likely contains many registered U.S. citizens. The administration has prioritized identifying noncitizen voters this year, a demographic that election experts note is rare.

Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued in the filing that once California mixes the challenged ballots with valid ones, they cannot be separated. “Once California commingles the challenged ballots with lawful ones, there is no way to get the challenged ballots back,” Sauer wrote. The Justice Department has moved quickly to advance the case, previously asking a lower appeals court to intervene early in the process without success.

Lower courts have sided with California, warning that the federal demand could disrupt the election. U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, nominated by President Bill Clinton, denied the initial request and stated that if the executive branch can discount votes based on unproven allegations, the democracy is in danger. He warned that segregating the ballots would wreak havoc on the midterm process and erode public trust. A three-judge appeals court panel later upheld Carter's order, with two judges voting to keep the ballots in the count and one dissenting.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, criticized the appeal as a desperate attempt to undermine the election. “It reeks of desperation and is another attempt to undermine our elections and trample on the rule of law,” Bonta said. The state has been mailing ballots to all roughly 23 million registered voters since early October. Election officials say that finding and setting aside the specific ballots now would be logistically impossible because hundreds of thousands of votes have already been processed.

The Supreme Court has previously rejected the president's push to restrict mail ballots ahead of this midterms cycle. The administration has secured a series of wins in emergency appeals during this second term, but the justices have not yet ruled on this specific ballot segregation request. The court is expected to consider the emergency appeal in the coming days.