On the eve of the US midterm elections, the administration of President Donald Trump is making a last-ditch attempt to sideline over 20,000 mail-in ballots in California, claiming non-US citizens are attempting to vote.
Justice Department Appeal to the Supreme Court
The US Justice Department (DoJ), which is run by Trump’s former personal attorney Todd Blanche, claims to have a list documenting non-US citizens on California’s voter rolls. In mid-October, the federal government first filed a lawsuit based on the allegations.
A district court judge rejected the DoJ request, warning that singling out ballots would wreak havoc on the election process and harm voters’ trust in the democratic process.
As reported by Deutsche Welle: DW.com – Top Stories, Los Angeles District Judge David Carter wrote in rejecting the Trump administration’s initial lawsuit in October: “If the Executive can discount votes and threaten an ongoing election due to unproven allegations, then our democracy is in danger.”
In bringing its case to the Supreme Court on Monday, the DoJ asked for a limited injunction directing the state of California to stop commingling suspected illegal ballots with legal ones pending the verification of voters’ status. Early voting has been underway in California for several weeks, with hundreds of thousands of ballots already processed. It remains unclear if the Supreme Court will respond in time for a ruling to have an effect on Tuesday’s election.
Voter List Errors and State Defenses
The voter list had been compiled by the US Department of Homeland Security. In its response to the federal government’s lawsuit, California defended its election integrity, stating that the process used by the Trump administration to identify non-citizen voters was likely flawed and full of errors.
Last week, another federal judge ordered the DoJ to share its list with an immigrant rights group and a voting rights watchdog based out of the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). A legal filing of the analysis found that thousands of US citizens on the list appear to be inexplicably flagged as ineligible to vote. Judge Carter noted that people recently flagged as non-citizens on voter rolls in other states have repeatedly turned out to be naturalized US citizens.
Trump has made unfounded claims of election fraud for years, despite multiple investigations finding such malfeasance is exceedingly rare. For the current midterm election cycle, Trump has zeroed in on claiming non-US citizens are trying to vote, despite these claims being repeatedly debunked by research and investigation.
Judge Carter wrote in October: “Never before in American history has the federal government, on the eve of an election, sought to coerce a state and local government to abandon their own constitutional elections procedures and bend to the will of the executive branch.”
The most populous US state, California, leans heavily Democratic and is not expected to be a competitive state for Trump’s Republicans in the midterms. California Governor Gavin Newsom is an outspoken critic of Trump and has warned the president’s administration against trying to interfere in the state’s voting process.
Ahead of the midterm voting on Tuesday, Newsom announced the deployment of election law experts, poll observers, and a helpline for voters to report any attempts of intimidation or interference at the polls.
