WASHINGTON — The Trump administration asked the US Supreme Court on Monday to force California to set aside the mail-in ballots of more than 20,000 people it claims may not be American citizens. The move, one day ahead of crucial midterm elections, comes after lower courts last week -- and again on Monday -- rejected the demand by the Department of Justice (DOJ), with one judge calling it brazen pre-election "interference." Solicitor General D. John Sauer, in an emergency filing with the Supreme Court, said that "once California commingles the challenged ballots with lawful ones, there is no way to get the challenged ballots back." "The only way to preserve the district court's ability to grant relief to the United States after a full merits proceeding, therefore, is to segregate the challenged ballots now," Sauer said. The California ballot case appears to be another attempt by the administration to cast doubt on the results of Tuesday's vote, in which President Donald Trump's Republican Party is at risk of losing control of Congress. Trump -- who has never acknowledged his own electio