WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Trump administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to intervene in its fight with California over more than 20,000 voters the Justice Department says may be noncitizens, seeking an emergency order requiring their mail ballots to be separated one day before Election Day.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer asked the justices to prevent the disputed ballots from being mixed with other votes while litigation continues. The government argues that once ballots are removed from identifying envelopes and counted, any ballot later found to have been cast by an ineligible voter could no longer be isolated.
The Justice Department says federal immigration records identified roughly 20,000 people who are “likely” noncitizens and may also be registered California voters. However, both citizenship and voter-registration status remain disputed, and the government has acknowledged that additional investigation is needed.
California has challenged both the accuracy of the list and the Justice Department’s legal authority to demand that ballots be segregated. A federal district judge rejected the government’s request, and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to intervene in a 2-1 decision, warning that last-minute ballot restrictions could disenfranchise eligible voters and disrupt an election already underway.
Questions about the list’s accuracy have become central to the dispute. An analysis submitted by the UCLA Voting Rights Project found that 8,880 of 20,930 names — about 42% — could not be matched to California’s voter file. Researchers also identified at least 22 confirmed U.S. citizens and said thousands of naturalized citizens may have been incorrectly flagged. The Justice Department disputes that analysis and maintains that its list is based on official immigration records.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli has publicly insisted that the individuals on the federal list are confirmed noncitizens, while separately acknowledging that investigators still need to determine whether they are actually registered California voters.
The case now places the dispute before the Supreme Court at the latest possible stage of the election. Justice Elena Kagan handles emergency applications arising from the 9th Circuit and could act herself or refer the request to the full court.
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