U.S. Politics · Courts · 36 outlets (L 8 · C 13 · R 11 · 4 not rated)
Supreme Court rejects Trump bid to set aside 20,000 California ballots
The court's one-sentence order offered no explanation and had no noted dissents.[6, 19] The Justice Department filed its application one day before votes are counted in the midterm elections, after lower courts rejected its earlier request to segregate the ballots.[17, 18, 29]
California officials and immigration rights groups question the accuracy of the administration's list; immigrant advocacy groups allege 40% of those accused do not match state voter rolls.[15, 19, 39] Separately, The Guardian reported that federal prosecutors in California charged six more people with alleged voter fraud crimes after the court fight failed.[7]
Why it matters California will count the 20,000 mail-in ballots in Tuesday's midterm elections rather than setting them aside while their legal status is investigated.[19, 27]
Covered by The New York Times, NBC News, Fox News and 33 more
Read first Supreme Court rejects Trump administration’s bid to set aside 20K California ballots
Where accounts differ (1)
- FramingRight-leaning outlets described the disputed ballots as fraudulent or tied to illegal voting — The Daily Signal called them "suspected fraudulent ballots" — while left-leaning outlets emphasized that citizens could be disenfranchised; HuffPost reported a judge warned the demand "could disenfranchise citizens in the midterms."[1, 27]
- HuffPost · Leans left · Nov 2, 11:41 a.m. ET Trump Administration Appeals To Supreme Court In Push To Sideline 20,000 California Mail Ballots
A district court judge had denied the Justice Department’s request and warned that the demand could disenfranchise citizens in the midterms.
- The Daily Signal · Right · Nov 2, 1:06 p.m. ET DOJ Seeks Supreme Court Review in California 20,000 ‘Likely’ Noncitizen Ballot Dispute
The Justice Department is asking the Supreme Court to require California to set aside more than 20,000 suspected fraudulent ballots. Just one day before Election Day, the DOJ filed an emergency request asking the high…
- HuffPost · Leans left · Nov 2, 11:41 a.m. ET Trump Administration Appeals To Supreme Court In Push To Sideline 20,000 California Mail Ballots
How balanced is this coverage?
Of the 32 rated outlets that covered it, 8 are left of center, 13 are center and 11 are right of center (10 of them in the Right group). 4 more are not rated.
- Left: none.
- Leans left: NewsOne (−1.18), HuffPost (−1.06), Raw Story (−0.94), MS NOW (−0.76), The New York Times (−0.70), The Guardian (−0.70), NPR (−0.68), The Daily Beast (−0.64).
- Center: NBC News (−0.49), PBS NewsHour (−0.48), Newsweek (−0.30), CBS News (−0.14), Axios (−0.05), Mediaite (+0.04), Roll Call (+0.04), Yahoo News (+0.07), Bloomberg (+0.08), The Hill (+0.10), UPI (+0.17), Forbes (+0.19), CNBC (+0.40).
- Leans right: New York Post (+0.64).
- Right: The Washington Times (+1.27), Washington Examiner (+1.34), WorldNetDaily (+1.44), Fox News (+1.52), Blaze Media (+1.71), The Daily Wire (+2.07), The Western Journal (+2.13), The Daily Signal (+2.20), One America News Network (+2.69), Conservative Review (+2.76).
Not rated Al Jazeera, Financial Times, Los Angeles Times, NewsNation. Not placed: they have no lean score.
Each dot is an outlet that covered it, placed by its audience-lean score (Eady et al. 2025), which measures who shares its links, not how accurate it is. The ticks under the line are all 113 rated outlets Tare reads.