The Department of Justice on Friday dismissed its failed effort to force California to set aside 20,000 mail-in ballots that it claimed had been sent to noncitizen voters, putting a formal end to a bid that was soundly rejected by the Supreme Court on election eve.
The notice of voluntary dismissal, filed late in the day in Los Angeles to Judge David O. Carter of the U.S. District Court for the Central District in California, followed a sweeping repudiation of the Trump administration in Tuesday’s midterm elections. It also came in the wake of a series of federal court decisions that rejected the administration’s claim of widespread illegal voting by noncitizens.
Federal officials had claimed that the administration had cross-referenced an assortment of databases to produce a list of thousands of “likely noncitizens” that it alleged were on voter rolls in California. State and local officials had responded that the administration’s list was outdated and riddled with errors and included the names of citizens who would be disenfranchised if their ballots weren’t counted.
Judge Carter had denied the bid in a blistering opinion, and two appeals were also rejected before the Supreme Court swiftly and summarily denied the extraordinary emergency request from the administration on Monday.
“The United States sought this relief to protect American voters in this state because each legal vote that is offset by an illegally cast vote constitutes irreparable harm,” the motion to dismiss the lawsuit noted. “The United States needed this relief around November 3.”
The motion added that the relief the administration sought “is no longer available — rendering voluntary dismissal necessary.”
As of Friday evening, nearly 11 million ballots had been processed in California.
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