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Supreme Court won't let the administration set aside 20,000 California ballots

The Supreme Court on Monday turned down the Trump administration's request to have California set aside more than 20,000 mail ballots from voters the administration flagged as likely noncitizens until their citizenship could be checked. The court gave no explanation and no justice publicly dissented; Fox News reports Justice Elena Kagan denied the request without referring it to the full court. Lower courts had also refused. Separately, on Monday, Chief Judge James Boasberg in Washington ruled the administration had likely violated the Constitution's Elections Clause and blocked its demands on California's mail ballots.

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Why it matters

More than 20,000 California mail ballots will not be set aside as the administration asked. About 23 million registered California voters were mailed ballots, and California has 52 House seats, the most of any state. The administration says it wants to stop noncitizen voting; California says eligible voters could lose their votes.

How each side sees it

The administration saysSetting the ballots aside was a modest request that would preserve them while their eligibility is checked, without canceling any votes. The Justice Department argued that once such ballots are counted "and commingled with lawful votes, the resulting harm is impossible to remedy."
California saysElection officials say the federal list appears to be filled with errors, that setting ballots aside could disenfranchise legal voters, and that doing it now would be logistically impossible. Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, said the appeal "reeks of desperation."

Sources

Checked against 2 established news sources:

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Published Tuesday, November 3, 2026. Spot an error? Email [email protected]. See our corrections log and standards.

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