Liberty Times, citing Reuters in the early hours of November 3 Taiwan time, reported that the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to temporarily bar California from counting more than 20,000 mail ballots. Federal officials say the voters may not be US citizens. The Justice Department wants the ballots held separately until each voter's citizenship is verified.

Liberty Times said the department argues that once the disputed ballots are mixed with ordinary ones they can no longer be told apart, and urged the justices to order the ballots held aside before ruling on the merits. The report did not include a response from California officials. With Republicans trying to keep control of Congress, the administration has increasingly focused on alleged noncitizen voting.

Two lower courts have already said no

The dispute was fought in lower courts first. US media reports say Judge David Carter of the federal district court denied the Justice Department's request on October 28, calling the methodology behind the federal list vague and its reliability unproven. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 against the department on October 30.

The majority found no feasible way to identify specific individuals' ballots and segregate them, while the dissenting judge argued California's refusal to separate them invites a violation of federal law. California officials counter that the federal list likely includes many citizens, and that millions have already voted with hundreds of thousands of ballots processed, so ballots can no longer be matched to voters.

What the Supreme Court's decision leaves open

Emergency applications usually draw a quick decision from a small number of justices, but when and how the Court will rule was not confirmed at the time of writing. Because the federal government is trying to change a state's counting procedure on the eve of an election, the scope of state election authority and federal intervention is at issue. Courts are generally seen as reluctant to change rules close to an election, but the Supreme Court's position on this case is not yet public.

Whatever the outcome, the fight could feed post-election disputes over the legitimacy of the count. California is the most populous and a Democratic-leaning state, which could also bear on House races. We will follow up once the Court acts.