Supreme Court rejects Trump's request to stop California counting disputed votes
The United States Supreme Court has turned down an emergency request to stop California counting disputed mail-in ballots, leaving the state's existing counting procedures in place on the eve of the midterm elections.
The United States Supreme Court has rejected an emergency request from the Trump administration that would have stopped California counting disputed mail-in ballots. The decision, handed down on November second, leaves the state's existing ballot procedures in place.
The Justice Department had asked the court to require California to separate ballots cast by about twenty thousand registered voters whom federal officials allege may not be citizens, and to hold those ballots back until their citizenship could be checked. The court declined the request in a brief order that gave no explanation, and no justice publicly dissented.
The request arrived after lower courts had already refused the same step. A federal district judge rejected it on October twenty-eighth, and a divided appeals court panel followed on October thirtieth, warning that separating the ballots so close to the election could disrupt counting and risk setting aside valid votes.
For California, the immediate effect is straightforward: election officials can continue processing and counting ballots under their usual procedures. The wider dispute over voter records and citizenship checks was not settled by the emergency order, which decided only whether the court would intervene before the election.
Reporting based on coverage from BBC News.