DOJ Drops Suit Over California's 20,000 Disputed Ballots
Federal prosecutors seek to dismiss the case after midterms, citing the loss of a practical remedy as ballots are already being counted.
By Christopher Singh ·
The U.S. Department of Justice moved to dismiss its own lawsuit on Friday, ending a legal bid to stop California from counting approximately 20,000 ballots. The federal government had alleged those ballots belonged to noncitizens whose immigration status had not been verified.
The request for dismissal arrived days after the midterm elections, during which Republican candidates suffered notable losses. A hearing was scheduled for the following week, where a special master was to evaluate the accuracy of the noncitizen list. California officials had previously argued the list was outdated and included legitimate voters. U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, who presides over the case, had echoed those concerns in a recent order denying the federal government's earlier requests.
The lawsuit was a central part of the Trump administration's effort to assert control over state elections, a goal President Donald Trump has pursued by claiming illegal voting is common without providing specific evidence. The Justice Department remains involved in other litigation with voting rights groups regarding the use of the noncitizen list. In a separate case in Alaska, a suit filed at the president's direction to block a Democratic Senate victory was quickly dismissed. The administration is appealing that ruling but has not yet filed a full brief with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
State election officials reported that California had processed roughly 9 million ballots as of early Friday, with nearly 5 million remaining to be counted. The motion to dismiss stated that by the time of the upcoming hearing, the state would have already mixed the disputed ballots with valid ones, making them indistinguishable. The document noted that the specific relief the United States sought was no longer available, necessitating a voluntary dismissal.
Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, had argued before the election that the lawsuit would become irrelevant once ballots were processed. The case was filed in mid-October, after ballots were sent to 23 million registered voters and hundreds of thousands had already been handled. Once processed, ballots are anonymized, making it impossible to isolate specific votes. Essayli said his goal was to safeguard election integrity and stop illegal voting rather than chase it later.
While the federal suit is being dropped, California prosecutors have continued their own efforts. In recent weeks, state officials arrested more than 30 noncitizens accused of illegally registering to vote. Some were also accused of voting in previous elections. In the week before the election, elections clerks across the state received subpoenas to testify before grand juries scheduled for November. It is not yet clear who is being criminally charged in those matters, though the department typically does not subpoena individuals it views as primary targets.
Judge Carter, appointed by former President Bill Clinton, had warned that separating ballots so late in the process risked disenfranchising citizens. He argued the move would wreak havoc on the midterms. The special master he appointed in late October was also set to determine if California had a viable mechanism for separating the ballots, a question that becomes moot as the state finalizes its counts.
