A federal appeals court has rejected the Trump administration’s latest attempt to stop counting 20,000 ballots in California , an effort that a panel of appeals court judges said could “jeopardize” midterm elections and disenfranchise thousands of eligible voters.

Friday’s 2-1 decision marks the third straight loss for the administration in its efforts to block ballots from alleged noncitizen voters, a legal battle that is expected to make its way to the Supreme Court with just three days left until Election Day with the balance of power in Congress at stake.

“We decline the United States’s invitation to contravene the Elections Clause by undermining the Constitution’s plain text,” the court’s majority wrote.

The court has “major concerns” that the administration’s attempts to seize control of the state’s election process will risk “disenfranchisement of eligible voters” and could put the “entire tabulation process in jeopardy,” judges wrote.

On Wednesday, a federal judge in California warned that the…