Supreme Court rejects Trump administration bid to make California set aside about 20,000 mail ballots

L2Who’s affected

California's roughly 23 million registered voters are each mailed a ballot, and more than 6 million had been returned, according to AP elections data (AP; CBS News). State and local officials said the list appeared to be filled with errors and that setting the ballots aside could disenfranchise legal voters (AP). The administration later sent lists to officials in all 58 California counties (CBS News).

L3Why it’s quiet

Analysis · OVERLOOKED AP, CBS News and other national outlets reported the ruling; see the O-Score receipts for the full count.

L4Deeper impact

At a hearing, U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson asked Justice Department attorney Kenneth Kao, "Would you agree there's a high error rate?" Kao replied, "That's a fair statement" (AP). U.S. District Judge David Carter, who denied the original request on Oct. 28, wrote, "If the Executive can discount votes and threaten an ongoing election due to unproven allegations, then our democracy is in danger" (AP; SCOTUSblog). A divided 9th Circuit panel upheld him 2-1 (AP). Separately on Monday, Chief Judge James Boasberg in Washington found the administration had "likely violated the Constitution's Elections Clause" with its demands of California officials (AP).

L5Full context

"The Court rejected Trump's emergency request without even asking the other side to respond," Gov. Gavin Newsom posted. "Democracy won" (AP). Bonta said courts had rejected the effort "not once, not twice, not three times, but four times" (AP). The administration called segregating the ballots a modest request that would still let legal votes be counted (AP). Confirmed noncitizen voting is rare, and it is illegal in federal elections (AP; CBS News). The court also rejected Trump's push to restrict mail ballots nationwide in September (AP).

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