US Justice Department drops lawsuit over California ballots

The lawsuit and dismissal

The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday moved to dismiss its own lawsuit that sought to stop California from counting roughly 20,000 ballots it alleged went to noncitizens until their immigration status could be verified.

The motion to dismiss the lawsuit said that, by the time of the upcoming hearing, the state will have already irreparably "commingled the challenged ballots with lawful ones."

"The relief the United States sought and needed is no longer available—rendering voluntary dismissal necessary," the motion said.

Background and context

The lawsuit was filed in mid-October, when ballots had been sent to all of the state's 23 million registered voters, and after hundreds of thousands of ballots were already processed. Once a ballot is processed, it is completely anonymized.

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter appointed the special master in late October, shortly after allowing California to proceed with elections as planned. Carter, who was appointed by former President Bill Clinton, argued in his blistering order that separating ballots at that late stage would risk disenfranchising citizens and warned it would "wreak havoc" on the midterm elections.

The special master would have also considered whether or not California election officials did in fact have a mechanism for separating the ballots.

California had processed roughly 9 million ballots as of early Friday, with nearly 5 million still left to be counted, according to state election officials.

Related litigation

The Department of Justice remains enmeshed in litigation with multiple immigrant and voting rights groups seeking to limit its use of the list of what is says are suspected noncitizens. Another controversial suit it filed in Alaska at Trump’s direction before the election to block the victory of the Democrat in that state’s Senate race was swiftly dismissed by a federal judge. The administration is appealing that ruling but has yet to file a full brief at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

California prosecutors in recent weeks have arrested over 30 noncitizens who are accused of illegally registering to vote. Some who were arrested were also accused of voting in previous elections. Elections clerks around California in the week before the election were sent subpoenas to testify before grand juries slated to convene in November. It's not clear who is being criminally charged in those cases, but the department does not typically subpoena people whom it regards as targets of a criminal investigation to appear before a grand jury.

Why it matters

The dismissal ends the federal government's effort to block the counting of the disputed ballots in California's primary election, after a federal judge had already allowed the state to proceed with elections as planned and criticized the plan to separate ballots at a late stage.

Sources

• thestar.com: US Justice Department drops bid to force California to set aside disputed ballots
• stamfordadvocate.com: US Justice Department drops bid to force California to set aside disputed ballots

This article was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Company claims are reported as claims. Cover image is AI-generated.