White House asks Supreme Court to pause 20,000 California ballots

Approximately 20,000 mail ballots in California face a temporary hold if the Supreme Court grants an emergency request from the Trump administration. The White House filed the appeal on Monday, seeking to set aside these specific votes before the final count for the midterm elections.

The federal government argues that these ballots belong to voters whose citizenship status is currently under review. Justice Department officials state that the votes should not be counted until the government can verify each voter's status. The administration has made identifying noncitizen voters a primary focus of its election strategy this year.

California officials disagree with the federal position. State election leaders describe the list of disputed voters as highly unreliable. They argue the list likely contains many people who are confirmed U.S. citizens. Officials note that separating the ballots now would be logistically impossible because voting has been underway since early October.

The state mails ballots to all roughly 23 million registered voters. Hundreds of thousands of these ballots have already been processed. California election officials warn that finding and isolating the specific challenged ballots at this stage would disrupt the counting process.

Lower courts have rejected the federal government's request. U.S. District Judge David O. Carter denied the initial injunction and warned that the move could disenfranchise citizens. Judge Carter, a Democrat appointed by President Bill Clinton, wrote that the demand threatened to erode trust in the democratic process.

A split appeals court panel upheld the district judge's order. The decision was a 2-1 vote. Two judges, appointed by Trump and Biden respectively, ruled in favor of California. The dissenting judge, also a Trump appointee, argued that California's refusal to separate the ballots encouraged a violation of federal law.

Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote that once California mixes the challenged ballots with lawful ones, there is no way to separate them. The Supreme Court has previously rejected the administration's push to restrict mail ballots before midterms. The high court must now decide whether to intervene one day before the end of the voting period.