The US Justice Department moved to drop its lawsuit seeking to block 20,000 California ballots, admitting the court can no longer separate the votes. The motion, filed on Friday, argues that the state has already mixed the disputed ballots with lawful votes, making the requested relief impossible. This strategic retreat came days after Republicans suffered significant losses in the midterm elections.
California election officials have long disputed the federal list, calling it outdated and full of eligible voters. A federal judge overseeing the case had previously questioned the government's evidence and rejected the request to keep these ballots separate. With about nine million ballots processed by early Friday and nearly five million still awaiting counting, the window for intervention had closed.
The Supreme Court rejected the department's emergency appeal on Monday, the day before Election Day. The request asked justices to force California to separate mail ballots from the approximately 20,000 people whose citizenship the government questioned. The high court denied the request in a brief, unsigned order, leaving the lower courts to manage the dispute.
Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, had warned that the lawsuit would become irrelevant after Election Day because ballots are anonymised once processed. “We want to stop illegal voting. We don't want to chase it later,” Essayli said outside court the week before the election. The department’s filing now explicitly states that the relief it sought is no longer available, rendering voluntary dismissal necessary.
In a separate legal battle, a federal judge dismissed the department's lawsuit seeking to block a Democrat's victory in Alaska's Senate race. The administration is appealing that decision but has yet to file its full brief with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Justice Department will now focus on other election-related legal challenges as the midterm results are finalized.