Trump asks Supreme Court for help in bid to set aside California ballots

With the midterms one day away, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court for help litigating its unproven claims of noncitizen voting in California.WASHINGTON (CN) — President Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court for help on Monday in his unprecedented attempt to interfere with California’s elections.On the eve of midterm elections, the Trump administration asked the justices to set aside 20,000 ballots from suspected noncitizens until their citizenship status is confirmed. The move is part of the federal government’s lawsuit against the Golden State pushing voter fraud theories based on noncitizen voting.California resisted the Department of Justice’s demand, calling the move illegal and questioning the accuracy of the government’s information. Trump has long made baseless claims of widespread noncitizen voting fraud to no avail.Two lower courts rebutted requests to immediately force California officials to set aside the ballots in question. On the eve of the election, the Trump administration filed a long shot bid at the Supreme Court, asking the justices to issue an emergency ruling directing state officials to segregate ballots.“‘Count first, and rule upon legality afterwards, is not a recipe for producing election results that have the public acceptance democratic stability requires,’” U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer wrote. “Indeed, here, it would be too late to ascertain the lawfulness of suspected unlawful ballots after they have been commingled with lawful ballots.”The Trump administration framed its request as a “modest remedy” that wouldn’t cancel any votes. And the government downplayed the lower court’s concerns that such relief would provoke catastrophic change, upending the administration of the election.“That doomsday prediction ignores that segregating ballots is a routine remedy when the lawfulness of ballots is questioned,” Sauer wrote.Under the Constitution, states are entitled to govern their own election procedures. A judge rebuked the government for trying to “coerce a state and local government to abandon their own constitutional elections procedures and bend to the will of the executive branch.” And an appeals court said the federal statute making it a misdemeanor for noncitizens to vote did not preempt states’ constitutional right over their election procedures.Trump’s California lawsuit coincides with a broader effort by the administration to interfere with state election processes ahead of the midterms. The Justice Department filed a similar lawsuit in Washington state, where it also made claims of noncitizen voter fraud. And the Trump administration sued Alaska in an attempt to block the certification of the state’s Senate race if the Democratic candidate wins.Election law experts decried the administration’s attempt to meddle in California’s elections. Walter Olson, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, said that the Justice Department’s lawsuit lacked an adequate legal basis in federal law.Olson said that the administration’s request would force California registrars to violate their own state’s law. And he called the government’s proffered databases a “national laughingstock."“Mar-a-Lago, which has been calling the shots on this, needs to get this through its head: Unless and until Congress provides clear legal guidance to the contrary, the Constitution reserves these decisions to the states,” Olson said.California has a process for challenging voters’ citizenship status. Legal experts said that the federal government shouldn’t be able to invent its own different process on the eve of the election.The Supreme Court did not immediately respond to the application.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads