Trump administration appeals to Supreme Court in push to sideline 20,000 California mail ballots

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's administration appealed to the Supreme Court on Monday in its push to sideline thousands of disputed California mail ballots the day before the pivotal midterm elections.

The emergency appeal came after an appeals court rejected the request to set aside some 20,000 ballots from people the federal government suspects may not be citizens.

The federal government says those ballots should not be counted until the voters' status can be verified. California officials say the list is highly unreliable and likely includes many people who are U.S. citizens.

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The Republican Trump administration has prioritized identifying noncitizen voters this year, despite them being rare.

A district court judge forcefully denied the Justice Department's request and warned that the demand could disenfranchise citizens in the Nov. 3 midterm elections to determine control of Congress.

The Justice Department asked the high court for a "limited injunction" that would direct California to "stop commingling suspected illegal ballots with legal ones" while the case continues to play out.

Voting has been underway in California, a largely Democratic state, since early October. All of the state's roughly 23 million registered voters are mailed a ballot. Hundreds of thousands of ballots have already been processed.

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Lower courts have sided with the state, with a district judge warning that segregating ballots would "wreak havoc" on the midterm elections and erode trust in the democratic process.

"If the Executive can discount votes and threaten an ongoing election due to unproven allegations, then our democracy is in danger," wrote U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, who was nominated by President Bill Clinton, a Democrat.

The Justice Department has sought to move the case along quickly, unsuccessfully asking an appeals court to intervene early.

The Trump administration has racked up a series of wins in emergency appeals before the Supreme Court, but the justices previously rejected the president's push to restrict mail ballots ahead of the midterms.

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Follow the AP's coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.

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