The Trump administration made an eleventh-hour appeal to the Supreme Court on Monday, urging the justices to require California to segregate 20,000 mail-in ballots that officials allege were cast by noncitizens—just one day before the midterm elections.
“Once California commingles the challenged ballots with lawful ones, there is no way to get the challenged ballots back,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote. “The only way to preserve the district court’s ability to grant relief to the United States after a full merits proceeding, therefore, is to segregate the challenged ballots now.”
Sauer described the request as a “modest remedy.”
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The emergency application followed a divided ruling by a Ninth Circuit panel, which rejected the Justice Department’s effort to impound the ballots.
In October, the DOJ provided Los Angeles County election officials with a list of 20,000 names. County officials said 7,035 of those names were linked to Los Angeles County addresses, while some individuals on the list were confirmed to be U.S.-born citizens.
The California Post has contacted the offices of Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta for comment.