Trump Team Seeks Supreme Court Order to Pause 20,000 California Ballots

The Trump administration filed an emergency appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to halt the counting of approximately 20,000 mail ballots in California. The move seeks to pause the tally of these specific votes until the next day's midterm elections conclude. This action follows a split decision by a federal appeals court that previously rejected the government's request to set the ballots aside.

Federal officials argue that the government suspects these voters may not be citizens and that the ballots should be excluded from the final count until their status is confirmed. California election officials counter that the federal list is unreliable and likely includes many U.S. citizens. The state has mailed ballots to all roughly 23 million registered voters since early October, and hundreds of thousands of those ballots have already been processed.

Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in the filing that once California mixes the challenged ballots with valid ones, the state cannot separate them again. The administration asked the high court for a limited injunction to direct California to hold the ballots while the legal case proceeds. California officials stated that finding and isolating these specific ballots now would be logistically impossible.

A district court judge initially denied the Justice Department's request, warning that the demand could disenfranchise citizens in Tuesday's vote. U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, a nominee of President Bill Clinton, wrote that if the executive branch can discount votes based on unproven allegations, democracy is in danger. A three-judge panel at the appeals court upheld Carter's order in a 2-1 vote.

Two judges on the appeals panel, one appointed by Trump and one by President Joe Biden, voted to keep the ballots in the count. The third judge, also appointed by Trump, dissented and argued that California's refusal to separate the ballots encourages violations of federal law. The Justice Department has previously tried to get an appeals court to intervene early but was unsuccessful.

The Supreme Court has granted emergency appeals to the administration in other cases during Trump's second term. However, the justices previously rejected the president's bid to restrict mail ballots ahead of this cycle's midterms. The outcome of this new appeal will determine whether the 20,000 disputed votes are included in the final California results for Congress.