California and Los Angeles County officials sought Monday to reassure voters that Tuesday's midterm election is secure, urging residents to cast their ballots even as the Trump administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court to order the state to set aside roughly 20,000 mail ballots.
"Californians deserve a free and fair election, one they know is safe from meddling, and that is exactly what we will deliver — just as we always have," Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis, who chairs the Board of Supervisors, said the county "has continued to administer our elections with integrity, prioritizing access for people to exercise their most basic rights."
"The Trump administration's latest attempt to disrupt our elections should not deter anyone from voting," Solis said.
A Count You Can Trust, an independent, nonpartisan coalition working to build confidence in Los Angeles County elections, reminded voters that threatening, harassing or intimidating voters is illegal. The coalition urged anyone who experiences or witnesses intimidation to report it at report.lavote.net.
"Our elections are secure, and every eligible voter has the right to vote free from threats or intimidation," said former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the coalition's co-chair. "Don't let the noise in Washington, or anyone trying to intimidate you, keep you from making your voice heard. Stay the course. Vote."
The coalition, an initiative of the California Community Foundation, is not affiliated with the county elections office and does not support or oppose any candidate, party or ballot measure.
How to vote
Voters in Los Angeles County can vote in person or drop off their ballots at any of the county's 646 vote centers, which are open Tuesday until 8 p.m.. Locations are listed at locator.lavote.gov.
Vote-by-mail ballots can also be returned at any of 429 official ballot drop boxes across the county, listed at lavote.gov/dropbox.
Ballots returned by mail must be postmarked on or before Election Day, Nov. 3 and officials have warned that ballots mailed on election day may not receive the required postmark. While voters can request a postmark at a post office to ensure their ballots are counted, dropping a ballot at a vote center is recommended.
Some voters at Santa Monica polls reported confusion over the City Council voting system. With 12 candidates running for four seats, voting machines only display a handful of candidates at a time. To see additional candidates, voters must use the “more” button at the bottom of the selection screen, not the “next” button as “next” transitions voters to the next section of the ballot.
An optional interactive sample ballot at lavote.gov/isb lets voters mark their choices on a phone or computer and transfer them to a ballot marking device at a vote center using a QR code.
Federal challenge
The Supreme Court rejected a push for California to set aside thousands of mail ballots from people President Donald Trump’s administration claims are noncitizens, a decision that comes on the eve of the pivotal midterm elections. The high court refused 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. It was the latest in a flurry of election-related litigation the day before the midterm elections, which will decide control of Congress for the last two years of Trump’s second term.
The department sued the state in October over its list of flagged voters, arguing the ballots should not be counted until each voter's citizenship can be verified. State officials say the list is riddled with errors and likely includes many U.S. citizens. A Justice Department attorney agreed in court Monday that the list has a high error rate.
Lower courts sided with California. U.S. District Judge David O. Carter denied the federal request, warning that separating the ballots would "wreak havoc" on the election. A divided three-judge appeals panel upheld his ruling.
Separately on Monday, Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington ordered the administration to stop making its demands, finding they likely violated the Constitution's Elections Clause, which gives states and Congress authority over election rules.
California mails a ballot to each of its roughly 23 million registered voters, and voting has been underway since early October. Hundreds of thousands of ballots have already been processed, and state officials say finding and isolating the challenged ballots now would be logistically impossible.
Noncitizen voting is rare, but the administration has made identifying such voters a priority this year.
Also Monday, federal prosecutors in Los Angeles announced criminal complaints against six more Los Angeles County residents, all lawful permanent residents, accused of illegally registering and voting and then lying about it on naturalization applications. The defendants live in Palmdale, West Hills, Agua Dulce and Canoga Park. Each faces up to five years in federal prison if convicted. A criminal complaint contains only allegations, and defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
The cases are part of what the Justice Department calls "Operation Protect the Vote," which has now charged 34 people. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said every defendant's name appeared on the list his office gave California officials.
"There are thousands of suspected noncitizens on California's voter rolls, and we renew our request for California to expeditiously work with us to verify the citizenship of those casting ballots in elections," Essayli said.
State response
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, called the Supreme Court appeal an act of desperation and an attempt to undermine the state's elections.
Solis said she was "disturbed by Trump's incessant attempts to interfere with California's elections," noting that the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the federal district court had already rejected the administration's efforts to have county ballots set aside.
Newsom's office said the Justice Department tried three times last week to throw out the ballots, citing "high confidence" that they were cast by noncitizens, a claim the governor's office said the department's own staff quickly undercut.
The governor said the state has prepared for federal interference throughout the year. He signed Senate Bill 73 to protect voter rolls, election technology and election workers ahead of the June primary, and later signed a package of election protection bills that created new felonies for interfering with elections.
Among the laws in effect for Tuesday's election, Assembly Bill 282 makes it a felony to seize ballots, election records or certified voting equipment before results are certified. Senate Bill 884 bars law enforcement officers from making arrests within 200 feet of a polling place on Election Day, except for crimes involving disruption of the polling place or crimes against people or property. It also allows county elections officials to keep polls open longer if voting is disrupted by violations of those rules.
Assembly Bill 1664 requires local election officials to notify the secretary of state and attorney general within one day of learning of any warrant, subpoena or law enforcement investigation involving election records or voting equipment.
The state budget also included nearly $40 million for elections, including $29 million to help counties hire staff and upgrade technology to speed up counting, $10 million for voter education at the county and state levels, and $750,000 to fight misinformation and prepare for federal interference.
Over the weekend, Newsom sent a letter to the chief judges of California's four federal district courts outlining resources for evaluating search warrant requests for election materials. His office said the letter was meant to ensure federal prosecutors do not use the criminal process to keep eligible voters' ballots from being counted.
The California Governor's Office of Emergency Services is coordinating a joint election security task force with the state Department of Justice and the secretary of state to address cyber threats, misinformation and threats to voters, election workers and polling places.
"California is taking the security of our election seriously, particularly as the threats from the President have increased in the last month," Newsom said. "No state has done more to prepare."