Trump administration asks Supreme Court to set aside 20,000 California mail ballots, a day before Election Day

The Trump administration on Monday asked the Supreme Court to temporarily block California from counting mail-in ballots cast by about 20,000 voters whom the Justice Department suspects are not U.S. citizens, CNBC reported. CBS News reported the same filing. The Supreme Court can act at any time and there is no deadline.

What the government is asking for

Solicitor General D. John Sauer called it a "modest remedy": California would set the ballots aside, not count them, and keep them separate until citizenship is checked. His argument is about timing. "Once California commingles the challenged ballots with lawful ones, there is no way to get the challenged ballots back," he wrote, so the only way to preserve relief later is to segregate them now.

How it got here

• Oct. 15: DOJ sued California in federal court in Los Angeles, according to CNBC, after giving Los Angeles County officials a list of names it said were registered but not citizens.
• Last Wednesday: Judge David Carter refused a restraining order. He wrote that voters who met California's registration rules "must not be deprived of a core right merely because of unfounded allegations stemming from a procedure rife with uncertainty and errors." The district court also found DOJ lacked standing.
• Friday: A 9th Circuit panel denied the request 2-1. Judge Mark Bennett, appointed by President Trump, and Judge Gabriel Sanchez, appointed by President Biden, formed the majority and wrote there was "a material risk that granting the United States its requested relief would result in disenfranchisement."

The numbers behind it

CBS reports that more than 6 million mail ballots had been returned in California as of Sunday, out of more than 23 million registered voters, with voting under way since early October. The 20,000 names are therefore a small fraction of the electorate, which is the point both sides argue from: DOJ says even a small number of unlawful votes dilutes lawful ones; California officials say the list is inaccurate and that sorting ballots this late risks wrongly excluding eligible voters. California Secretary of State Shirley Weber has said the federal government has not provided evidence for the allegation. Noncitizens are barred by law from voting in federal elections.

What happens next

Emergency applications from California go first to Justice Elena Kagan, who can act alone or refer the matter to the full court. She had not set a response deadline at the time of the reports we reviewed. The Supreme Court has the same practical choices it always has here: deny, grant in part, or grant. We do not forecast which.

Why it matters beyond California

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3. California is the largest state by registered voters, and its late-counted mail ballots routinely make close House races slow to call. Any court order that changes how those ballots are handled could affect when control of the House is settled, and that timing is what traders and business owners watch because tax, tariff and spending fights depend on it. See our related coverage of the dismissed Alaska Senate suit, where a federal judge also ruled DOJ lacked standing. Markets-side election coverage is at /section/markets.

Sources: CNBC and CBS News, both Nov. 2, 2026; the 9th Circuit and district court rulings as quoted by those outlets. This story will be updated if the Supreme Court acts. This is news reporting, not legal or investment advice.