US Supreme Court rejects Trump’s administration request to block California mail-in ballots

The US Supreme Court rejected an emergency request from the Trump administration to block mail-in ballots in California on the eve of the midterm elections. According to the Daily Times, the justices refused to halt the counting of ballots for more than 20,000 registered voters following allegations from federal officials that the targeted ballots belonged to individuals who were likely noncitizens.

In a related legal development, US District Judge Tanya Chutkan temporarily barred the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security from sending states lists of voters the administration claims may not be citizens. The Jerusalem Post reports that the judge also prohibited the administration from asking state election officials to separate or withhold ballots from those voters until citizenship is proven.

This ruling comes as the administration seeks to assert federal control over election administration ahead of the November 3 midterms.

The Jerusalem Post further notes that the Trump administration received a separate victory from a panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals. This ruling cleared the government to threaten state and local election officials with prosecution if they do not comply with demands regarding voting by alleged noncitizens, though Judge Chutkan is not bound by that decision.

Brief written by urgent.news from Daily Times, Jerusalem Post, Hindustan Times — 3 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.