President Donald Trump’s administration asked the US Supreme Court on Monday, 2 November 2026, to temporarily block California from counting mail-in ballots from more than 20,000 registered voters whom federal officials allege are likely non-US citizens.
The Justice Department’s emergency request, filed the day before the 3 November midterm elections, asks the court to order California to separate those ballots from others and not count them until each voter’s citizenship can be verified. The department argued: “Once illegally cast ballots are counted and commingled with lawful votes, the resulting harm is impossible to remedy.”
A federal appeals court had refused the request on Friday, and US District Judge David Carter had denied it on 28 October, writing that never before had the federal government, on the eve of an election, sought to coerce a state to abandon its own constitutional election procedures.
California has said its safeguards against noncitizen voting are robust and that the federal list is flawed and likely includes people who are US citizens. Reuters notes that multiple studies and state audits show ineligible voting, including by noncitizens, is rare.
The Supreme Court had not ruled on the emergency request at the time of reporting, and it had previously rebuffed an administration effort to restrict voting by mail in September. California is the most populous US state, a Democratic stronghold with 52 seats in the House of Representatives.
Source: Reuters
