The Department of Justice on Friday dismissed its effort to force California to set aside 20,000 mail-in ballots. The government claimed these ballots went to noncitizen voters, but the Supreme Court rejected the move before Election Day. Officials said the list used by the administration was outdated and had errors.
The effort by the Trump administration to set aside thousands of mail-in ballots had been rejected by the Supreme Court before Election Day.
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 State and local officials had responded that the administration's list was outdated and riddled with errors and included the names of citizens who would be disenfranchised if their ballots weren't counted.
Subscribe to The Times to read as many articles as you like.