Justice Department asks Supreme Court to have California set aside 20,000 disputed mail ballots

On the eve of the midterm elections, the Trump administration filed an emergency request Monday asking the U.S. Supreme Court to make California separate about 20,000 mail ballots tied to voters Washington believes may lack citizenship, The Philadelphia Inquirer and 6abc reported.

The request came after the administration lost twice in lower courts. A federal district judge turned down the Justice Department, and a split three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals let that decision stand, according to the Inquirer. The Pennsylvania Capital-Star pointed out that the appellate decision was issued Friday, yet federal lawyers waited until midday Monday to go to the high court.

According to the Capital-Star, federal prosecutors filed suit against the state in October, claiming Homeland Security had flagged 20,000 possible noncitizens on the rolls. Officials said that agency matched a publicly available version of the state's voter roll against federal data and records from Lexis Nexis. State officials contend the list is deeply flawed and probably contains many citizens, the Inquirer and 6abc reported.

Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued in the filing that time is short. "Once California commingles the challenged ballots with lawful ones, there is no way to get the challenged ballots back," he wrote, as quoted by the Inquirer and the Capital-Star. The department requested a limited injunction, and according to the Capital-Star, also sought a temporary administrative stay while it readies a full appeal.

California and county officials say pulling out those ballots now cannot practically be done. The state mails a ballot to each of its approximately 23 million registered voters, and voting began in early October, the Inquirer reported. More than 5 million ballots were already in, per the Capital-Star. U.S. District Judge David O. Carter cautioned that separating ballots would throw the election into disorder and damage public confidence, the Inquirer and 6abc reported.

The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, which received the list after a court ordered it shared, told the court Saturday that 42% of the listed names did not appear in the state's present voter rolls and that at least 22 corresponded to known citizens, the Capital-Star reported. That outlet also quoted state Attorney General Rob Bonta: "There is no widespread voter fraud."

The Inquirer reported that the appeals court majority consisted of a Trump appointee and a Biden appointee. A second Trump appointee dissented, writing that the state's refusal to separate ballots invites breaches of federal law.

Justice Elena Kagan, who handles emergency matters from the 9th Circuit, will take the first look at the filing, the Capital-Star reported. The Inquirer noted that the court earlier turned away a separate bid by the president to limit mail voting before these elections.

Compiled by True News from reporting by The Philadelphia Inquirer, 6abc Action News and Pennsylvania Capital-Star. Each outlet's original story is linked below.

Originally published by True News: https://truenews.bagleyenterprises.net/stories/694