One day before the midterms, the fight over California mail ballots just reached the Supreme Court. On Monday, the Trump administration asked the justices to order California to set aside ballots from more than 20,000 people the Justice Department says are “likely” noncitizens, NPR reports.
Last week, we said the Supreme Court should settle this ballot fight. Now it has the chance. So the justices should take it, and they should rule fast.
Key Takeaways
- Solicitor General D. John Sauer filed an emergency application Monday asking the Supreme Court to block California from counting the disputed ballots for now.
- DOJ wants the ballots kept apart, not thrown out, until officials can check each voter’s citizenship.
- A federal district judge and a divided 9th Circuit panel both said no.
- The request goes first to Justice Elena Kagan, who handles emergency appeals from California.
- An outside review found that 42% of the names on DOJ’s list do not appear on California’s current voter roll.
- As of midday Monday, the Supreme Court had not acted or set a deadline for California to respond.
What DOJ Wants on California Mail Ballots
In fact, the request is narrow on paper. In its Supreme Court application, DOJ asks the Court to make California segregate the ballots, not cancel them. Federal law already makes it a crime for noncitizens to vote in federal elections. So DOJ argues California should hold these envelopes until officials confirm who cast them.
Timing drives the whole fight over California mail ballots. Once a county verifies a signature, it pulls the ballot from its envelope and mixes it with the rest. After that, nobody can pull it back out. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of ballots have already come in across the state, The Hill reports.
Sauer pushed back hard on the claim that this would cause chaos. “That doomsday prediction ignores that segregating ballots is a routine remedy when the lawfulness of ballots is questioned,” he wrote.
Why Two Courts Blocked DOJ on California Mail Ballots
First, the federal list. DOJ sent it to California and Los Angeles County in mid-October. That was about three weeks before Election Day. DOJ sued on Oct. 15. Then Judge David Carter, a Clinton appointee, denied the request on Oct. 28.
On Friday, the 9th Circuit agreed in a 2-1 order. Judges Mark Bennett, a Trump appointee, and Gabriel Sanchez, a Biden appointee, warned of a “material risk” that the order “could jeopardize the County’s entire election.” They cited the Purcell principle, which tells courts not to change election rules at the last minute.
However, Judge Patrick Bumatay, also a Trump appointee, dissented. He called DOJ’s ask a “modest remedy” that “would not cancel any vote but would allow time to verify the eligibility of suspected noncitizens.”
The List Has Real Problems
To be fair, the doubts about this list are serious. According to NPR, data scientists at UCLA’s Voting Rights Project reviewed it under a court order. They found that 42% of the names are not on California’s current voter roll. The list also includes naturalized citizens.
Also, county officials found that many people on the list had no active registration and never got a ballot. As a result, the real number of disputed California mail ballots is likely far smaller than 20,000. In addition, California says DOJ never explained how it built the list or who supplied it.
Even so, California’s own words point to common ground. In a statement, the secretary of state’s office says it shares “a commitment to ensuring only persons eligible to vote can participate in our elections.” Good. That is the whole point.
Why the Supreme Court Ballot Ruling Must Come Fast
After all, election integrity is not a partisan slogan. Every illegal vote cancels out a legal one, and accurate voter rolls protect every citizen. At the same time, no one has proven that thousands of noncitizens voted in California. A list with this many errors cannot carry that claim alone.
That is why the Supreme Court should act quickly and clearly. Kagan can rule alone or send the request to the full Court, The Hill notes. Either way, voters deserve an answer before California mail ballots move past the point of no return. California accepts mail ballots postmarked by Election Day that arrive within seven days, so the window is short.
Above all, this mess shows that voter-roll checks belong months before an election, not weeks. Washington should share its data and its methods. States should share their rolls and fix errors early. Otherwise, courts will keep facing rushed fights like the one in Alaska, where a judge tossed a late DOJ ballot suit after DOJ moved to separate Senate ballots.
The Bottom Line
In the end, honest elections need two things at once: only citizens voting, and every citizen’s vote counting. The fight over California mail ballots tests both. The Supreme Court should say clearly how those goals fit together, and say it now.
What do you think? Should the Supreme Court order California to set these ballots aside, or did DOJ wait too long? Tell us in the comments.
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