WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday turned down the Trump administration’s last-minute request to make California separate mail ballots from about 20,000 people it claims are not U.S. citizens, CBS News reported.
In a one-line, unsigned order, the court denied the Justice Department’s request for an injunction. There were no noted dissents.
The Justice Department went to the high court earlier Monday after a divided federal appeals court refused to order California election workers to set the ballots aside.
Last week, U.S. District Judge David Carter rejected the department’s request for a temporary restraining order. He said the administration’s process for identifying alleged noncitizens was “rife with uncertainty and errors,” according to CBS News.
The administration told California and Los Angeles County officials last month that more than 20,000 suspected noncitizens were on their voter rolls and ordered their ballots held until citizenship could be confirmed. It later sent lists to all 58 California counties.
It is a federal crime for noncitizens to vote in U.S. elections, but confirmed cases are rare, CBS News reported. The Justice Department has charged more than 200 people with illegally voting in past elections.
Voting in California has been underway since early October, and more than 6 million mail ballots have been returned.
Sources: CBS News. Thee Arizona Times uses AI-assisted reporting reviewed against the sources listed.
Photo: Michael D Beckwith / CC0 via Wikimedia Commons.
