The US Supreme Court has rejected an application by the Trump administration to stop the counting of more than 20,000 mail-in ballots in the state of California. The administration had sought to block the votes, alleging that the voters included non-US citizens.

The US Department of Justice initiated the move just ahead of the midterm elections, claiming to possess a list of non-US citizens present on California’s voter rolls. However, a lower court in California had previously dismissed a similar lawsuit filed by the Trump administration based on the same allegations.

On Monday (November 2), the Trump administration filed a fresh petition with the Supreme Court, seeking an order to withhold the suspect votes from the official tally until the citizenship status of the voters could be verified. Nevertheless, within hours of submission, the Supreme Court refused to halt the vote counting.

Meanwhile, an analysis of the voter list prepared by the US Department of Homeland Security revealed that it also included the names of thousands of eligible US citizens. California authorities stated that the methodology used by the Trump administration to identify non-citizens was prone to errors.

Earlier, Judge David O. Carter, while dismissing the lawsuit, warned that challenging votes without evidence damages the electoral process and undermines public confidence in the democratic system.

In response, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced the deployment of legal experts, observation teams, and dedicated support systems to report any instances of voter intimidation or interference in the election process.