DOJ drops California ballot lawsuit

The U.S. Department of Justice moved on Friday to drop its lawsuit against California, ending a federal attempt to pause the counting of approximately 20,000 ballots. The legal action sought to hold those specific votes until the state could verify the immigration status of the voters. This dismissal comes days after Republican candidates suffered losses in the midterm elections.

The timing of the move is notable. A federal hearing was scheduled for next week, about seven days from now. During that session, a special master was expected to review the accuracy of the list identifying suspected noncitizen voters. California officials had previously told the court that the federal list was outdated and included citizens. The federal judge overseeing the case had recently expressed strong skepticism about the government's position in a written order.

State election officials reported that California had processed roughly 9 million ballots by early Friday. Nearly 5 million ballots remained to be counted. The DOJ motion to dismiss argued that the state would have already mixed the disputed ballots with valid ones by the time of the upcoming hearing. The filing stated that the state would have irreparably commingled the challenged ballots with lawful ones, making the relief sought by the United States no longer available.

The case formed part of a wider administration effort to assert control over state-run elections. President Donald Trump has frequently claimed that state elections are rife with illegal voting, though the administration has not provided specific evidence to support those claims in this context. Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, filed the suit in mid-October. At that time, ballots had already been sent to all 23 million registered voters in the state, and hundreds of thousands had already been processed.

Essayli argued in court that the lawsuit would become irrelevant after Election Day. He noted that once a ballot is processed, it is completely anonymized, making it impossible to identify and sequester specific votes later. His goal was to safeguard the integrity of the election so it would not have an effect on the upcoming results. Outside of court the week before the election, he said, "We want to stop the illegal voting. We don't want to chase it later."

The DOJ remains involved in other litigation with immigrant and voting rights groups. These groups are seeking to limit the department's use of the list of suspected noncitizens. In a separate matter, the administration filed a controversial suit in Alaska at Trump's direction before the election. That suit aimed to block the victory of the Democrat in the state's Senate race. A federal judge swiftly dismissed that case. The administration is appealing the ruling but has not yet filed a full brief at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

California prosecutors have been active in the weeks leading up to the election. They arrested over 30 noncitizens accused of illegally registering to vote. Some of those arrested were also accused of voting in previous elections. In the week before the election, subpoenas were sent to election clerks across the state. They were ordered to testify before grand juries scheduled to convene in November. It is not clear who is being criminally charged in those specific cases. The department does not typically subpoena people it regards as targets of a criminal investigation to appear before a grand jury.

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter appointed the special master in late October. This occurred shortly after he allowed California to proceed with elections as planned. Carter, who was appointed by former President Bill Clinton, issued a blistering order denying the federal government's request. He argued that separating ballots at that late stage risked disenfranchising citizens. He warned that the process would wreak havoc on the midterm elections. The special master was also set to consider whether California election officials had a mechanism for separating the ballots.