Justice Department drops suit over 20,000 California ballots

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a motion on Friday to dismiss its own lawsuit against California. The case sought to stop the state from counting roughly 20,000 ballots. The federal government alleged these ballots belonged to noncitizens. The dismissal request comes days after Republicans lost key midterm races. It arrives about a week before a scheduled hearing.

A special master was set to evaluate the accuracy of the voter list in that hearing. California officials had previously stated the list is outdated. They argued it includes legitimate voters. Judge David O. Carter, who presides over the case, echoed that sentiment in a recent order. He denied the federal government’s request to pause the counting.

The lawsuit was a central part of the administration’s effort to control state-run elections. President Donald Trump has described state elections as rife with illegal voting, though he has not provided specific evidence. The Department of Justice remains involved in other litigation with voting rights groups. These groups seek to limit the agency's use of a list of suspected noncitizens. A separate suit in Alaska aimed to block a Democratic Senate victory. A federal judge dismissed that case quickly. The administration is appealing but has not yet filed a full brief in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

As of early Friday, California had processed about 9 million ballots. State election officials said nearly 5 million remained to be counted. The motion to dismiss argued that by the time of the upcoming hearing, the state would have mixed the challenged ballots with lawful ones. The document stated that the relief the United States sought is no longer available. This rendering made voluntary dismissal necessary.

Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, argued in court that the lawsuit would become irrelevant after Election Day. He noted that there would be no way to sequester ballots allegedly belonging to noncitizens. The suit was filed in mid-October. At that time, ballots had been sent to all 23 million registered voters. Hundreds of thousands of ballots were already processed. Once processed, a ballot is completely anonymized. Essayli said his goal was to safeguard election integrity. He told reporters outside court, “We want to stop the illegal voting. We don’t want to chase it later.”

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California referred questions to the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. The agency did not respond to an emailed request for comment on Friday evening. California prosecutors have arrested over 30 noncitizens in recent weeks. These individuals are accused of illegally registering to vote. Some are also accused of voting in previous elections. Elections clerks across the state received subpoenas in the week before the election. They were ordered to testify before grand juries that will convene in November. It is not clear who is being criminally charged in those cases. The department does not typically subpoena people it regards as targets of a criminal investigation.

Judge Carter appointed the special master in late October. He allowed California to proceed with elections as planned shortly before that appointment. Carter, who was appointed by former President Bill Clinton, argued that separating ballots at that late stage risked disenfranchising citizens. He warned the move would wreak havoc on the midterm elections. The special master was also to consider whether California election officials had a mechanism for separating the ballots.