Ruling was latest judicial rebuke of unprecedented efforts from Trump administration to intervene in elections process of multiple states
Supreme court rules against Trump over bid to force California to set aside ballots
Midterm election ballots arrive at the Los Angeles County Ballot Processing Center on 2 November. Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/ReutersView image in fullscreenMidterm election ballots arrive at the Los Angeles County Ballot Processing Center on 2 November. Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/ReutersFrom 53m agoThe US supreme court on Monday quickly rejected the Trump administration’s request to force California to set aside thousands of mail ballots from people President Donald Trump’s administration claims are noncitizens, the Associated Press reports.
The high court refused 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 decision came just hours after the administration asked the supreme court to intervene.
The ruling was the latest judicial rebuke in the face of a wave of unprecedented efforts from the Trump administration to intervene in the elections process of multiple states. The midterm elections are expected to bring nationwide victories for Democrats and impose more Congressional checks on Trump’s power.
In California, the Trump administration had asked the high court to set aside the challenged ballots until the voters’ citizenship status could be verified. But officials there said that the list appeared to be filled with errors and that setting the ballots aside could effectively disenfranchise legal voters.
The high court did not detail its reasoning for rejecting the Trump administration’s request, as is common in emergency decisions. The justices previously rejected Trump’s push to restrict mail ballots around the country in September, even though the justices have sided with his administration in a series of other emergency docket appeals.
Two losses in two courts in just three hours.
Judges across the country have repeatedly rebuked the Trump administration for its last-minute demand that California set aside 20,000 ballots that the administration claims it has evidence were cast by noncitizens —an unprecedented and possibly unconstitutional attempt to interfere with a state’s electoral process.
Today, the administration’s California gambit was rejected by two different courts in two separate cases in a matter of hours.
First, a federal judge in Washington ordered the Trump administration to stop demanding that California election officials set aside ballots from 20,000 people, writing, “The Executive Branch has likely violated the Constitution’s Elections Clause, which commits authority over election rules to the states and Congress alone.”
Then, in a separate case, the supreme court swiftly rejected the Trump administration’s emergency request this morning that it intervene on the day before the election and force California election officials to set aside the 20,000 mail ballots.
Democratic elections attorney Marc Elias called the supreme court ruling “A complete DEFEAT for Trump DOJ” noting that the court’s denial of the administration’s request came with “no noted dissents,” even from more conservative justices, and that the court “denied DOJ’s application about the California election without even asking for us to respond.”
The US supreme court on Monday quickly rejected the Trump administration’s request to force California to set aside thousands of mail ballots from people President Donald Trump’s administration claims are noncitizens, the Associated Press reports.
The high court refused 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 decision came just hours after the administration asked the supreme court to intervene.
The ruling was the latest judicial rebuke in the face of a wave of unprecedented efforts from the Trump administration to intervene in the elections process of multiple states. The midterm elections are expected to bring nationwide victories for Democrats and impose more Congressional checks on Trump’s power.
In California, the Trump administration had asked the high court to set aside the challenged ballots until the voters’ citizenship status could be verified. But officials there said that the list appeared to be filled with errors and that setting the ballots aside could effectively disenfranchise legal voters.
The high court did not detail its reasoning for rejecting the Trump administration’s request, as is common in emergency decisions. The justices previously rejected Trump’s push to restrict mail ballots around the country in September, even though the justices have sided with his administration in a series of other emergency docket appeals.
Extreme weather is having an impact on voting and elections in the Southwest, as the National Weather Service estimated up to four inches of rain could fall through Monday across the Four Corners region — where New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah meet — as the phenomenon stoked by warming Pacific waters known as El Niño disrupts weather patterns, the Associated Press reports.
Officials had warned of “potentially catastrophic” flooding in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, a town of about 2,000 nearly wiped out in 1911 when the San Juan River crested at approximately 17.8 feet (5.4 meters). The river reached 16.81 feet (5.1 meters) late Sunday night, flooding downtown streets, before receding Monday, the weather service said.
The Colorado Secretary of State’s office arranged alternative voting plans for evacuated or stranded residents of Pagosa Springs, Colorado. Other elections officials had urged voters to cast ballots before the storms hit.
Evacuations also were ordered along the San Juan River in New Mexico, which officials warned was still rising and could crest Tuesday through Wednesday. The village of Chama, New Mexico, was also evacuated and cut off by road closures.
In Michigan, where he is fighting for one of the country’s most fiercely contested US senate seats, Adbul El-Sayed and his supporters are focusing their closing message on the country’s healthcare crisis.
Speaking to reporters, El-Sayed, an epidemiologist who previously served as a county public health director, said that Medicaid coverage would be his number one priority if he his elected to the senate.
People who lose Medicaid coverage end up getting care in emergency rooms, where it is most expensive, and hospitals then push those costs into negotiations with insurers, El-Sayed said. And the cost ultimately lands on everyone, he added.
Earlier, Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, who is campaigning in Michigan for El-Sayed, told his supporters in Royal Oak, a suburb of Detroit, that that higher wages and universal healthcare must be the heart of the Democratic agenda. “We want Medicare for All,” Warren said.
Former President Barack Obama has posted his personal endorsement of Democratic candidates running in four key swing states: Georgia, Ohio, Michigan and Maine.
His posts included photos of him campaigning with Democratic candidates at rallies in Georgia, Ohio, and Michigan, and a campaign video about Troy Jackson, the Democratic senate candidate in Maine.
Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass, a Democrat locked in an extremely close mayoral race with a challenger running to her left, Nithya Raman, has issued a statement condemning the Trump administration’s emergency appeal to the supreme court, asking for it to intervene in its attempt to force California to set aside 20,000 ballots that the administration has asserted were possibly submitted by noncitizens:
Donald Trump is asking the supreme court to intervene in the California ballot case the day before Election Day, after lower courts have already said no. This is a desperate attempt to scare people into staying home, and it’s a distraction from the real issues that matter to Angelenos and Californians.
It’s also an effort to make Americans doubt our elections, which are safe, secure, and run by dedicated election workers. Don’t fall for it.
The Cook Political Report has released its final predictions for the likely outcome of House races, with an additional five house districts shifting more firmly towards the Democratic candidates, compared with previous estimates, election analyst Dave Wasserman wrote.
Overall, the report predicts that Democrats “will win 15 to 25 states, putting them at a 230 to 240-seat majority,” Erin Covey writes.
The five districts that Cook now sees as a bit more likely to be won by Democrats are:
Tennessee’s 9th district, where Democrat Justin Pearson, a gun violence prevention advocate, is running against Republican Brent Taylor, who is facing 11th hour questions about his alleged history of texting unsolicited nude photos
Virginia’s 5th district, where Democrat Tom Perriello is challenging incumbent Republican John McGuire
Florida’s 4th district, where Democrat LaShona Holloway is challenging incumbent Republican Aaron Bean
North Carolina’s 7th district, where Democrat Kimberly Hardy is challenging incumbent Republican David Rouzer and North Carolina’s 14th district, where Democrat Lakesha Hudson is challenging Republican Tim Moore
Abdul El Sayed, the Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan, told over 300 supporters in Royal Oak on Monday that Republicans’ Islamophobic attacks against him were an attempt to distract voters from the policies driving up their costs.
“In MAGA terms, whenever they’re trying to distract you, it’s because they’re picking your pocket,” El Sayed said.
View image in fullscreenDemocratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed speaks during a campaign rally at the Royal Oak Farmers Market on 2 November. Photograph: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/APHe argued that Donald Trump and JD Vance would rather talk about him than about the price of gas and groceries or how people can afford to see a doctor, and he mocked his Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, as an “NPC,” or non-player character.
El Sayed blamed the administration’s war in Iran, its tariff fight with Canada and its health policies for rising costs and higher premiums, speaking a day before the midterm elections in the Detroit suburb.
He finished by saying that Michiganders take differences in a name or in prayer as an invitation to talk. “Royal Oak, when they come for us, we won’t back down,” he said.
A federal judge on Monday ordered the Trump administration to stop demanding that California election officials set aside ballots from 20,000 people the Department of Justice says might be noncitizens, the Associated Press reports.
The ruling by James Boasberg, a federal judge in the District of Columbia, is the latest loss for the Trump administration in its push to force California to separate ballots from people on a list of possible noncitizens. California officials say the demand comes too close to the election, with millions of ballots already cast, and that the list is riddled with errors and likely contains many US citizens.
Boasberg ruled that the administration’s demands to California violate the US constitution.
“The Executive Branch has likely violated the Constitution’s Elections Clause, which commits authority over election rules to the states and Congress alone,” wrote Boasberg, who is based in Washington.
Boasberg’s order came just hours after the administration asked the US supreme court to intervene and issue a “limited injunction” that would direct California to set aside the ballots while a separate, but related case, US v California, plays out in court.
In that case, a district court judge had forcefully denied the Justice Department’s request to California and warned that the demand could disenfranchise citizens in Tuesday’s midterm elections to determine control of Congress.
The Trump administration’s emergency appeal to the supreme court came after a divided appeals also court rejected the request to set aside the 20,000 ballots.
The day before the midterm elections, Trump posted a video on X reiterating his pledge to give $5,000 “all adult citizens in the United States of America” if Republicans maintain control of the House and Senate.
“If the Republicans win, you will each have $5,000 in your pocket,” Trump said in the video clip.
Trump’s claim of paying out $5,000 per person for political victory for his party has been sparking bipartisan shock and condemnation since he first suggested it in September, prompting accusations that Trump is trying to buy votes, not from a subset of swing voters, but from the entire US electorate.
The cost of a theoretical payout of that size is estimated at $1.2tn.
Haley Stevens, the Democratic congresswoman who said she would now back the Republican nominee for US Senate in Michigan, defended her decision in an interview today. The representative who has faced fierce backlash for her eleventh-hour defection, also rejected any notion that she was “forced” into her decision to pull her endorsement and support Mike Rogers, the former GOP congressman. “This is what happens to women,” Stevens told conservative commentator Scott Jennings. “Any notion that I was forced into my decision is all more of the same.”
Meanwhile, El-Sayed’s campaign announced that it received $2.4m in donations on Sunday, the day that Stevens announced she would now support Rogers. El-Sayed’s campaign that the amount is a single-day fundraising record for his Senate bid. His staff also noted that more than 26,000 people contributed for the first time on Sunday.
A day before the midterm elections, the justice department has asked the supreme court to force Califronia election officials to set aside 20,000 mail ballots, that the administration claims were submitted by non-citizens. Last week, a federal judge declined to order California election officials to segregate and not count ballots from people the Trump administration claimed were non-citizens, rebuffing a legally thin request from the justice department that appeared designed to cast doubt over the results of the midterms.
As we bring you the latest polling and predictions ahead of Tuesday’s election, one notable shift is in Louisiana – where a Democrat hasn’t won a US Senate seat since 2008. Republican Julia Letlow, a Trump-backed congresswoman who beat the incumbent Bill Cassidy in her primary, will face Jamie Davis, a Democrat and third-generation farmer. Sabato’s Crystal Ball has moved the Senate race in the Pelican state from “likely Republican” to “leans Republican” – a sign that the Davis might be diluting Letlow’s strength. One of the country’s leading election forecasters, Crystal Ball also moved several of their “toss up” races to “leans Democratic”. This includes the key Senate races in Maine, Kansas, Texas and Ohio.
Haley Stevens, the Democratic congresswoman who said she would now back the Republican nominee for US Senate in Michigan, defended her decision in an interview with conservative commentator Scott Jennings today.
“I gave him an opportunity to the Senate nominee here in in Michigan to unite around something that everyone can agree on, and then I got disinvited instead,” Stevens said, referring to her comments last week where she said any appearance alongside Abdul El-Sayed was preconditioned on his denouncing an outside group’s campaign ad that had blamed US support of Israel for the rising cost of living.
El-Sayed declined the request, accusing Stevens of needlessly reopening debates from a settled primary. His campaign subsequently disinvited Stevens from a campaign event scheduled for this past weekend. El-Sayed also condemned the ad, saying that he did “not agree with its contents”.
“This is what happens to women,” Stevens said in the interview. “Any notion that I was forced into my decision is all more of the same.”
I made a decision, and you know what? I’m hearing from a ton of people, and maybe they don’t want to come forward, but I’m hearing from a ton of people all over who are agreeing and are thanking me for just saying what I feel.
After Stevens lost the August Senate primary by a close margin in this year’s primary, she offered El-Sayed a lukewarm endorsement, but refused to openly campaign for El-Sayed for months.
Trump noted that he’d spent the last two weeks crisscossing the country, holding rallies on behalf of several embattled Republicans.
“America is ready to go. They’re ready to vote. I hope they’re ready to do the right thing,” he said, while downplaying the effects of the ongoing Iran war in a final plea to voters.
“I don’t know if you even call it a war because we haven’t been doing any fighting for months,” Trump said. “Oil prices are plunging now. They’re plunging a record. Nobody’s ever seen a plunge like this, and they’ll be down. I hope people realize that when they go into the voting booth, because we had to stop Iran from having a nuclear weapon.”
On the eve of the midterms, national average fuel prices have surged to $4.10 per gallon for gasoline – a $1.00 increase over last year – while diesel has climbed to $6.20 per gallon, nearly double its price a year ago.
Trump has now mentioned the upcoming elections, running through his greatest hits of talking points, and repeating several falsehoods in the process.
“These are the most dangerous candidates ever put up. There’s never been anything like what we’re seeing: jihadists and Muslim Brotherhood members,” he said, baselessly claiming (again) that Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for US Senate in Michigan, is a member of the Islamist group.
Trump added that Democratic candidates are “all committed to the same radical agenda: open borders, raising your taxes by trillions of dollars, taking away your guns, transgender mutilation of your children, abolishing oil and natural gas, sending energy costs skyrocketing and opening the floodgates to millions of migrants from all over the world, hoping to get them to be able to vote”.
View image in fullscreenDonald Trump holds up photos of the Reflecting Pool in Washington DC as he gives a press conference. Photograph: Evan Vucci/ReutersDonald Trump has been speaking for nearly 20 minutes, and he’s yet to actually make any substantial reference to the midterm elections which will take place tomorrow – and will decide the makeup of Congress in his final two years in office.
Instead, the president is using the opportunity to talk about his construction and makeover projects throughout Washington DC, including on the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
“It’s really a beautiful thing. It’s a work of art in many ways, but it was a work of art that never worked, but now it will work,” Trump said, while joking that the pool should be renamed after him.
As we bring you the latest polling and predictions ahead of Tuesday’s election, one notable shift is in Louisiana – where a Democrat hasn’t won a US Senate seat since 2008.
Now, Republican Julia Letlow, a Trump-backed congresswoman who beat the incumbent Bill Cassidy in her primary, will face Jamie Davis, a Democrat and third-generation farmer.
Sabato’s Crystal Ball has moved the Senate race in the Pelican state from “likely Republican” to “leans Republican” – a sign that the Davis might be diluting Letlow’s strength.
One of the country’s leading election forecasters, Crystal Ball also moved several of their “toss up” races to “leans Democratic”. This includes the key Senate races in Maine, Kansas, Texas and Ohio.
Meanwhile, the forecaster also moved the competitive Iowa Senate race from “toss up” to “leans Republican”. Here, Democrat Josh Turek is attempting to beat Republican congresswoman Ashley Hinson to win the open seat in the Hawkeye state.
Fox Style News Syndicate. Sourced from broadcast reporting: Read Full Source Coverage.