Supreme Court Rejects the Push to Set Aside 20,000 California Ballots on Election Eve

The Supreme Court has rejected the Trump administration's push to have California set aside thousands of mail ballots, refusing on Monday to intervene in a case involving 20,000 people the administration flagged as likely noncitizens on the largely Democratic state's voter rolls.

The Associated Press reported the decision on the eve of the pivotal midterm elections, noting that it was the latest in a flurry of election-related litigation the day before voters decide control of Congress for the last two years of President Donald Trump's second term. The AP also noted that years of evidence has shown voting by noncitizens is rare.

Reuters described the action as quick: California had argued that the federal lawsuit would disenfranchise 20,000 voters based on vague accusations, and that the process used to identify noncitizens was error-prone. The ballots at issue are mail-in ballots from registered voters federal officials alleged were likely non-citizens of the United States.

The high court's refusal landed the same day a federal judge ordered the administration to stop demanding that California segregate ballots cast by people on the lists of suspected noncitizens — two courts, two rulings, one day, both against the administration's Election Eve effort in California.

The ruling closes the courtroom chapter of the California fight before polls open Tuesday, when all 435 House seats and 35 Senate seats are contested. A Reuters/Ipsos poll completed Monday found 46 percent of registered voters saying they would vote for Democrats in congressional elections, against 38 percent for Republicans, and early voting had already set a record, with 57 million votes cast as of Monday afternoon — up from 45 million in all of the 2022 midterms.