Trump administration asks Supreme Court to make California set aside 20,000 ballots it calls likely noncitizen

The Justice Department asked the Supreme Court on Monday to order California to keep separate the mail ballots of more than 20,000 people the administration says are "likely noncitizens," so they can be challenged before they are counted.

In a 19-page emergency application, Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote: "Once California commingles the challenged ballots with lawful ones, there is no way to get the challenged ballots back," SCOTUSblog and CBS News report. The request goes first to Justice Elena Kagan, who handles emergency matters from the 9th Circuit.

U.S. District Judge David Carter turned down the request on Oct. 28, and a 9th Circuit panel refused 2-1 on Friday. Judges Mark Bennett, a Trump appointee, and Gabriel Sanchez wrote that segregating the ballots carried a "material risk" of disenfranchising eligible voters, AP reports. California has said the federal list is unreliable: the UCLA Voting Rights Project found 42% of the names are not on the current voter rolls, and some naturalized citizens appear on it, NPR reports.

More than 6 million California mail ballots have already been returned, and ballots postmarked by Election Day can arrive through Nov. 10.