Supreme Court rejects Trump's request to stop California counting disputed votes

What the report says

The US Supreme Court has rejected a last-minute request from the Trump administration to intervene in California’s vote-counting process ahead of the midterm elections, allowing lower-court rulings to stand. According to BBC World News, the Justice Department had sought to have about 20,000 ballots set aside on the basis that they may have been issued to non-US citizens. California election officials disputed that claim and said the federal government’s screening process was inaccurate.

The court issued its decision in a brief one-line order, denying the request for an injunction. Two lower courts had already refused similar relief, and the Supreme Court action effectively ends the administration’s effort to disqualify the ballots, the BBC reported. The dispute came just before an election that will determine control of Congress for the final two years of President Donald Trump’s second term.

BBC World News said the Justice Department had sent letters last month to California officials, including the secretary of state and Los Angeles County registrar, and later federal officials threatened criminal charges if ballots were not separated. State officials said doing so during an active election would be difficult and could disenfranchise eligible voters. More broadly, the case fits into a long-running Trump administration push against alleged voter fraud, an issue that research has generally found to be rare. The California case also drew criticism from a federal judge, who described it as possible election interference.