Trump administration takes disputed California ballots to Supreme Court

The Justice Department asked the court to set aside the ballots or temporarily block their counting until the citizenship status of the affected voters could be verified. The request concerns more than or approximately 20,000 registered California voters, according to the supplied reports.

Federal officials allege or suspect that some of the voters may not be U.S. citizens. The available evidence does not establish that the affected voters are noncitizens, leaving the citizenship question unresolved in the material reviewed for this report.

The emergency appeal followed an earlier rejection of the administration's request to set aside the ballots, PBS NewsHour reports. The Supreme Court filing therefore moved the dispute from the lower-court process to the nation's highest court on the eve of the midterm elections.

The case places the counting of thousands of California mail ballots under immediate judicial scrutiny, but the supplied reports do not state whether the Supreme Court granted or denied the emergency request. They also do not establish what process, if any, would follow for the ballots if citizenship status could not be verified.

CNBC's summary also refers to a separate lawsuit involving Alaska's Senate election. The supplied material does not establish how that matter relates to the California ballot appeal, so the two proceedings cannot be linked on the available evidence.