Supreme Court Rejects Trump's Push to Set Aside 20,000 California Mail Ballots on Election Eve

The Supreme Court has rejected a push for California to set aside thousands of mail ballots from people President Donald Trump's administration claims are noncitizens, the Associated Press reports in its 6:19 p.m. Eastern news summary — a decision that comes on the eve of the pivotal midterm elections. The high court refused on Monday to intervene in a case involving 20,000 people the Republican administration flagged as likely noncitizens on the largely Democratic state's voter rolls.

The ruling ends, for Election Day purposes, the fight this station covered this morning, when the administration asked the court to require California officials to set aside the disputed ballots. The Justice Department had sued the state over its list of about 20,000 flagged voters, part of an administration effort that has prioritized identifying noncitizen voters this year, despite them being rare, AP reports. With the court refusing to step in, California will count those mail ballots under its normal rules when polls close Tuesday.

AP calls the decision the latest in a flurry of election-related litigation filed the day before the midterms, which will decide control of Congress for the last two years of Trump's second term. For Orlando voters the case changes nothing at the precinct — Florida's rules, its 7 p.m. close and its own canvassing process are untouched — but it settles the largest outstanding court question hanging over Tuesday's count on the other side of the country, hours before the first polls open.