Trump lawyers ask Supreme Court to set aside 20,000 California ballots

Key Points:

• On the eve of the midterm election, Trump administration lawyers filed an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court seeking to segregate 20,000 California mail ballots from voters they claim may be non-citizens, a request previously denied by lower courts.
• California officials and voting experts have challenged the administration's list as unreliable, noting it includes U.S. citizens and many who are not registered voters, and warned that segregating ballots mid-election would disrupt the process and disenfranchise legitimate voters.
• The 9th Circuit Court ruled against the administration, emphasizing that states have the constitutional authority to set the "Times, Places and Manner" of elections unless Congress legislates otherwise, and advised the administration to seek changes through Congress rather than the courts.
• Critics argue the administration’s last-minute legal intervention is baseless and unlikely to succeed, with experts underscoring that election procedures are traditionally managed by states and that the Supreme Court has historically rejected late court-ordered election rule changes.
• The dispute highlights the tension between federal and state authority over elections, with the administration continuing to pursue legal avenues to prevent alleged non-citizen voting despite repeated judicial setbacks and opposition from California officials.