Supreme Court leaves 20,000 California ballots in dispute as election day approaches

The U.S. Supreme Court denied the Department of Justice’s emergency request to stop California from counting ballots from 20,000 voters the federal government identifies as likely noncitizens. The decision, issued Monday evening, leaves state election officials free to process those ballots for the Tuesday vote.

The legal conflict began when the Justice Department sought to force California to set aside specific ballots until citizenship was verified. Judge David Carter, a Clinton appointee, and a divided Ninth Circuit panel previously rejected this move, characterizing it as part of a broad pattern of federal intervention in state election administration.

The Ninth Circuit ruled Friday that altering voting procedures so close to the election posed a material risk of disenfranchisement. Judges Mark Bennett and Gabriel Sanchez wrote that the state’s system was already in motion and that the federal list was unreliable. They cited the Purcell principle, which discourages changing election rules on the eve of a vote, and the National Voter Registration Act, which restricts removing voters within 90 days of a federal election.

Judge Patrick Bumatay dissented from the Ninth Circuit decision. The Justice Department then filed for injunctive relief with the Supreme Court, seeking to override the lower court rulings before polls closed.

Election officials in Los Angeles County argue that the actual number of affected ballots is much smaller than the 20,000 figure cited by the federal government. Many names on the Justice Department’s list did not have active registrations or did not receive mailed ballots. Data scientists at UCLA’s Voting Rights Project found that 42% of the names on the federal list are not currently on the California voter roll. Their analysis also identified naturalized citizens on the list.

The federal government has continued to apply pressure on California officials in recent weeks. The Justice Department sent subpoenas to election administrators and reminded them of potential criminal prosecution for allowing ineligible voters. A federal judge in San Francisco issued a temporary restraining order late Friday, barring the administration from threatening or coercing state officials to stop processing the disputed ballots. The government has appealed that order.

With the Supreme Court’s refusal to intervene, California will count the ballots from the identified voters as part of the Tuesday election. The state maintains that the federal government’s method of identifying noncitizens is flawed and that pausing the count would disrupt the entire election process.