Courts & Justice · Report · File No. 261102-677
Justice Department asks Supreme Court to block 20,000 California ballots
With one day until the midterm election, the Trump administration wants the high court to order California to set aside the ballots of voters it calls 'likely' noncitizens. Two courts have already refused, saying the federal list is unreliable and the move could disenfranchise voters.
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The Department of Justice asked the Supreme Court on Monday to step into its fight with California over the state's voter rolls, filing a notice that it plans to appeal after two lower courts refused to block thousands of mail-in ballots from being counted 12.
The department says it has identified 20,000 "likely" noncitizens on California's voter roll whose ballots should not be counted until their citizenship can be verified 1. It wants the state to set those ballots aside and stop processing them 1.
A federal district judge and a divided panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected that request. The appeals court ruled Friday that the federal government's list is unreliable and that creating a new system to segregate ballots while voting is already underway is infeasible 1.
The two judges in the majority, Mark J. Bennett, a Trump appointee, and Gabriel P. Sanchez, a Biden appointee, wrote that granting the government's requested relief carried a material risk of disenfranchisement and could jeopardize the county's entire election 1.
They cited longstanding legal precedent, known as the Purcell principle, that election rules should not be altered on the eve of an election, as well as the Constitution's grant of authority to states to run elections 1. The opinion also cited the National Voter Registration Act, which bars states from systematically removing ineligible voters within 90 days of a federal election 1. The panel's third judge, Patrick J. Bumatay, also a Trump appointee, dissented 1.
The actual number of ballots in dispute is likely much smaller than 20,000, because county election officials have found that many of the people on the department's list did not have active voter registrations and were not mailed ballots 1.
It remains to be seen whether the Supreme Court will agree to intervene, and whether it would weigh in before Election Day on Tuesday if it does 1.
A widening fight with California
The appeal comes as the Justice Department has been escalating its feud with California election officials. In recent weeks, department officials have warned local election officials they could be criminally prosecuted if they do not cooperate with federal demands to segregate ballots, and last week the department sent grand jury subpoenas to employees at the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder's office 1.
The case tests how much power Washington has over how states run their elections, and it lands one day before voters go to the polls. That matters because the ballots at issue belong to real voters, and the courts so far have said the government's list cannot be trusted enough to justify pulling them out of the count 1.
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Sources
- NPR, “DOJ asks for Supreme Court to intervene on California ballot demands” (2026-11-02). npr.org/2026/11/02/nx-s1-6023802/supreme-court-california-vo
- CNBC, “Trump administration asks Supreme Court to hear California mail-in ballot appeal” (2026-11-02). cnbc.com/2026/11/02/supreme-court-california-mail-ballots-el
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More from the files
Appeals judges, two named by Trump, doubt DOJ bid to hold 20,000 California ballots
In a rare Sunday hearing, a federal appeals court panel questioned the Justice Department's request to set aside mail ballots it says came from likely noncitizens. More than 3 million Californians have already voted, and a trial judge takes up the case Tuesday.
Ninth Circuit rejects DOJ bid to make California set aside 20,000 mail ballots
A split appeals panel said it lacked jurisdiction and sent the Trump administration's emergency request back to a district judge. For now, California keeps counting ballots under its normal rules a few days before the midterms.
Analysis finds 42% of DOJ's California noncitizen voter list not on state rolls
A legal filing Saturday says 8,880 of the 20,930 names the Justice Department flagged as possible noncitizen voters in California match no one on the state's voter file, and at least 22 are U.S. citizens. The finding lands three days before the midterm election, as the department's demands on election officials face repeated court rejection.
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