Supreme Court rejects Trump bid to block 20,000 California ballots

On the eve of the US midterm elections, the administration of President Donald Trump made a last ditch attempt to sideline over 20,000 mail-in ballots in California, claiming non-US citizens are attempting to vote.

The US Justice Department (DoJ), which is run by Trump's former personal attorney Todd Blanche, has claimed to have a list documenting non-US citizens on California's voter rolls.

In mid October, the federal government first filed a lawsuit based on the allegations, which was rejected by a California district court. 

On Monday, the DoJ asked for a "limited injunction" directing the state of California to "stop commingling suspected illegal ballots with legal ones" pending the verification of voters' status. 

However, hours after the appeal was filed, the Supreme Court said it would decline to stop California from counting the votes. 

When the initial lawsuit was filed by the Trump administration earlier in October, Los Angeles District Judge David Carter had warned that singling out ballots would "wreak havoc" on the election process and harm voters' trust in the democratic process.

"If the executive can discount votes and threaten an ongoing election due to unproven allegations, then our democracy is in danger," Carter wrote in rejecting the initial suit. 

Early voting has been underway in California for several weeks, with hundreds of thousands of ballots already processed.

Battle for US midterm elections heats up

Analysis shows thousands of eligible voters on ballot blacklist

The voter list had been compiled by the US Department of Homeland Security. In its response to the federal government's lawsuit, California defended its election integrity, and said the process used by the Trump administration to identify non-citizen voters was likely flawed and full of errors.

Last week, another federal judge ordered the DoJ to share its list with an immigrant rights group, and a voting rights watchdog based out of the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).

A legal filing of the analysis found that thousands of US citizens on the list appear to be inexplicably flagged as ineligible to vote. US District Judge Carter said people recently flagged as noncitizens on voter rolls in other states have repeatedly turned out to be naturalised US citizens.

Trump's fixation on voter fraud

Trump has made unfounded claims of election fraud for years, despite multiple investigations finding such malfeasance is exceedingly rare.

For the current midterm election cycle, Trump has zeroed in on claiming non US citizens are trying to vote, despite these claims being repeatedly debunked by research and investigation.

"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 elections procedures and bend to the will of the executive branch," US District Judge Carter wrote in October. 

The most populous US state, California, leans heavily Democratic, and is not expected to be a competitive state for Trump's Republicans in the midterms.

California governor Gavin Newsom is an outspoken critic of Trump, and has warned the president's administration against trying to interfere in the state's voting process.

Ahead of the midterm voting on Tuesday, Newsom announced the deployment of election law experts, poll observers and a help line for voters to report any attempts of intimidation or interference at the polls.

What could a Democrat win mean for Trump's presidency?