US Supreme Court rejects Trump, lets California count all ballots

California is the most populous US state and a Democratic stronghold. The administration intensified its focus on alleged noncitizen voting in the run-up to the midterms. Multiple studies and state audits show that ineligible voting, including by noncitizens, is ​rare.

The Supreme Court's brief, one-sentence order on Monday did not offer any explanation of its action, as is common when it handles emergency matters. No justice publicly dissented from the ​decision. The court also did not ask California for a response to the administration's request, a step that, when taken, usually signals serious consideration of ⁠an emergency case.

Read:Trump faces major political test as Americans vote in midterms. California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, called the decision "a welcome sight for all Americans given the disgusting and dangerous attacks on our democracy by the federal government.

""Tomorrow (Tuesday), Californians can feel secure in ​knowing the state will carry out a free and fair election — just as we've always done," Newsom added. A federal appeals court refused the administration's request on Friday.

The administration had demanded that California separate any ​allegedly unlawful ballots from other ballots and not count them until those voters are determined to be US citizens. "Once California commingles the challenged ballots with lawful ones, there is no way to get the challenged ballots back," the Justice Department said in its request to the Supreme Court.

Trump has made false claims about widespread US voting fraud, including in the 2020 election lost to Democrat Joe Biden. "We will continue pursuing every available legal avenue to protect the ​integrity of our elections and ensure federal law is enforced," acting US Deputy Attorney General Trent Mc.

Cotter said in a social media post after the administration's filing earlier in the day. Constitutional questions. The US Constitution ​assigns the responsibility of administering elections to states, though the federal government has some oversight.

The lawsuit marked a rare federal intervention in the voting process and signalled a willingness by the administration to contest the election ‌results in ⁠court. The administration already sought to restrict voting by mail — a mode of casting ballots used more often by Democratic-leaning voters — but the Supreme Court in September rebuffed that effort.

And a federal judge on Sunday dismissed the administration's lawsuit concerning the US Senate race in Alaska. The list of 20,000 registered voters was amassed by the US Department of Homeland Security and sent to California officials and to Los Angeles County officials.

Read more:Judge blocks Trump administration from pressuring states over noncitizen voting. The Justice Department sued in federal court on October 15, claiming California is unlawfully preventing its enforcement of a 1996 US law that makes it a criminal offence for noncitizens to vote in federal elections.

The department ​said California's action violated the Constitution's Supremacy Clause, ​which holds that federal law generally preempts ⁠state law. California has said that the state's safeguards against noncitizen voting are robust and that the lawsuit threatens to deprive 20,000 people of their right to vote based on vague accusations.

The administration's process for scrutinising voter lists to identify noncitizens is flawed and likely rife with errors, it said in ​court papers. California has 52 seats in the House of Representatives, more than any other state.

Democrats need a net gain of four House seats ​to win a majority in ⁠the chamber. 'Bend to the will'US District Judge David Carter in Los Angeles denied the administration's request on October 28.

"Never before in American history has the federal government, on the eve of an election, sought to coerce a state and local government to abandon their own constitutional election procedures and bend to the will of the executive branch," Carter wrote.

Carter raised concerns over the reliability of the administration's data, noting that people recently ⁠flagged by the ​federal government as noncitizens on voter rolls in other states have repeatedly turned out to be naturalised US citizens. "If the ​executive can discount votes and threaten an ongoing election due to unproven allegations, then our democracy is in danger," Carter wrote.

The San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals also refused on Friday to block the ballots, emphasising the state's power over ​election procedures and California's "comprehensive statutory scheme to ensure the integrity of its elections," including a system for cancelling registrations if a voter is shown to be ineligible.