US Midterms Eve: Trump Urges Turnout as Supreme Court Rejects California Ballot Challenge

Washington, United States. Candidates for Congress and President Donald Trump delivered their closing appeals to voters on Monday, a day before the midterm elections. Tensions were high in Michigan, where Abdul El-Sayed is seeking to become the first Muslim elected to the Senate.

Trump’s closing push

With control of Congress at stake for the last two years of his term, Trump spent his final major address before election day promoting the renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. It is among the public works projects in Washington that he has prioritized since returning to the White House.

Related: Democrats Face Michigan Senate Rift as Trump Pursues Ballot Court Action Before Midterms

RelatedDemocrats Face Michigan Senate Rift as Trump Pursues Ballot Court Action Before Midterms

Later, he joined Fox News’ “Hannity” show by telephone and asked Republicans to act as though he were on the ballot, in an effort to raise participation. “We have to vote. If our people vote, we win in a landslide,” Trump said.

What is at stake

On Tuesday, all 435 seats in the US House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 seats in the US Senate will be contested. Democrats are widely expected to win back the House, but the Senate presents them with a tougher task.

If Republicans lost either chamber, Trump would face new constraints, and Democrats would gain the power to investigate his administration. A Democratic Senate majority would also let the party block his nominees to federal courts, the Supreme Court among them.

California ballot dispute

California was also in focus after the Supreme Court acted quickly on Monday to reject an effort by the Trump administration, through the Justice Department, to temporarily stop the state from counting mail-in ballots. The ballots came from more than 20,000 registered voters whom federal officials alleged were probably not US citizens.

California had argued that the federal lawsuit would strip 20,000 voters of their rights on the basis of vague accusations, and that the method for identifying noncitizens was prone to mistakes.

Separately, a US judge on Monday ordered the Trump administration to stop requiring California to set aside ballots cast by people appearing on lists of suspected noncitizens.