On Election Eve, the Justice Department Asks the Supreme Court to Let It Set Aside 20,000 California Mail Ballots It Says Came From Likely Noncitizens

The Justice Department has gone to the Supreme Court hours before Election Day, asking it to pause lower-court rulings that denied its request to segregate more than 20,000 California mail-in ballots it says were likely cast by people who are not U.S. citizens, Fox News reports.

What DOJ is asking. The department says a limited injunction would keep the ballots apart while their eligibility is investigated, and would not cancel any votes. "Once illegally cast ballots are counted and commingled with lawful votes, the resulting harm is impossible to remedy," the Justice Department wrote in its filing.

How it got here. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the request Friday, with Judge Patrick Bumatay dissenting. A federal judge in Los Angeles had turned it down the week before. The lower courts cited the state's authority over election procedures and warned that granting the request could jeopardize the election. The case began with an Oct. 15 DOJ lawsuit alleging California is impeding enforcement of the federal ban on noncitizen voting in federal elections, and that the state violated the Supremacy Clause.

California's answer. The state says its safeguards against noncitizen voting are robust and argues the federal list may contain errors that could disenfranchise eligible voters. The two sides dispute whether the ballots are unlawful at all.

Why it matters. California has 52 House seats, and Democrats need a net gain of four seats nationally to take the chamber. Earlier on this site: the district court's refusal and the Ninth Circuit's emergency order.

What to keep in mind. The number and the "likely noncitizen" label come from the Justice Department's own filing and list. The Supreme Court had not acted on the request in the Fox report.