Trump appeals over 20,000 disputed ballots in California

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has appealed to the Supreme Court in a dispute over around 20,000 mail-in ballots in California linked to voters whom the federal government suspects may not be U.S. citizens. The request was filed just before the midterm elections that will determine which party controls Congress.

The Justice Department is insisting that the ballots be set aside and not counted until the status of the people who submitted them has been verified. The Supreme Court was asked to intervene after an appeals court rejected the administration’s request to exclude the disputed votes from the overall count.

The federal government requested a limited temporary measure requiring California to stop mixing ballots suspected of being unlawful with the other ballots. According to the Justice Department, once they have been opened and processed, there is no longer any practical way to determine which votes were cast by specific voters.

“Once California has mixed the disputed ballots with the lawful ones, there is no way for the disputed ballots to be recovered,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote.

California authorities are challenging the reliability of the federal list and say it likely includes many U.S. citizens. Lower courts sided with the state, while a federal judge warned that separating the ballots could “cause serious harm” to the election and undermine confidence in the democratic process.

Warning about restricting the right to vote

Federal Judge David O. Carter rejected the Justice Department’s request and warned that it could disenfranchise citizens. The ruling came as voting in California had already begun and hundreds of thousands of ballots had been processed.

“If the executive branch can reject votes and endanger ongoing elections based on unproven allegations, then our democracy is in danger,” Carter wrote.

In California, mail-in ballots were sent to around 23 million registered voters. The federal government has made identifying voters who are not U.S. citizens one of its priorities, even though such cases are rare.

The Justice Department had already unsuccessfully asked an appeals court to intervene at an earlier stage. The dispute has now been brought before the Supreme Court, which must decide whether to intervene before the election process is completed.

Sources: bta.bg, apnews.com