Follow-Up: DOJ Asks Supreme Court to Order California to Set Aside Mail Ballots From More Than 20,000 Voters Pending Citizenship Verification

Washington — The U.S. Department of Justice on Monday, November 2, asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in California's midterm vote counting, filing an emergency application that would order the state to set aside mail-in ballots cast by more than 20,000 registered voters and not count them until each voter's citizenship status is verified. The filing came one day before the November 3 midterm elections, which will decide control of Congress. The application was filed by U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer.

"Once California commingles the challenged ballots with lawful ones, there is no way to get the challenged ballots back," the Justice Department wrote in its appeal. The department says the list of more than 20,000 voters was amassed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and sent to California officials and to Los Angeles County officials. The Justice Department sued California on October 15, claiming the state is unlawfully preventing enforcement of a 1996 federal law that makes it a criminal offense for noncitizens to vote in federal elections.

The Supreme Court filing followed three losses for the department in lower courts within a week. U.S. District Judge David Carter rejected the request on October 28, writing that never before in American history has the federal government, on the eve of an election, sought to coerce a state to abandon its constitutional election procedures, and questioning whether the process used to build the list was credible. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused the same request on Friday by a 2-1 vote, saying forcing California to use the list could bar valid votes from being counted and jeopardize the Los Angeles County election; Circuit Judge Patrick Bumatay dissented, calling the government's request reasonable.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta responded to the Supreme Court filing by saying that three legal victories in one week make clear the Trump administration has "zero authority to interfere in California's elections," and called its fraud claims baseless. California says it already has a comprehensive statutory scheme to ensure the integrity of its elections and that the process used to create the federal list is "highly suspect." County election officials have also noted that many people on the list did not have active voter registrations and were not mailed ballots, so the number of ballots actually in dispute is likely much smaller than 20,000. In September, the Supreme Court rebuffed a separate administration effort to restrict voting by mail.

It is not yet known whether the Supreme Court will act on the emergency application before Election Day; such applications can be granted or denied without a hearing. The case is still developing.

Related: DOJ Noncitizen Voter List Expands to Five States: Courts Twice Reject Bid to Block California Counting

Related: Follow-Up: DOJ Asks Judge to Consider Contempt for Immigrant Rights Group Over Voter List Analysis

(Source: U.S. Department of Justice)

Source: U.S. Department of Justice

Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)

Photo: 图：位于 Washington 的美国最高法院大楼黄昏全景（资料图）。Joe Ravi 摄，CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Panorama of the U.S. Supreme Court Building in Washington at dusk (file photo). By Joe Ravi, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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