The U.S. Justice Department moved Friday to voluntarily dismiss its lawsuit challenging the counting of 20,000 ballots in California, arguing the relief it sought is now impossible given Tuesday\u2019s midterm election has concluded.<\/p>\n
The Justice Department had sought a court order requiring state and Los Angeles County election officials to set aside the ballots, which it alleged could be from noncitizen voters. U.S. District Judge David O. Carter and a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals had both rejected that request, and the U.S. Supreme Court denied a Trump administration appeal<\/a> to those lower court rulings \u2014 with no noted dissents.<\/p>\n Carter had ruled that the government\u2019s request was probably unconstitutional, given the Constitution gives states and Congress power over elections, not the executive, and probably ran afoul of federal law barring sweeping vetting of voter rolls in the immediate run-up to an election.<\/p>\n However, he had set a schedule moving forward for additional fact-finding in the case \u2014 including by appointing a special master to dig into the data the federal government was relying on to assert the 20,000 voters were potentially noncitizens.<\/p>\n In a filing before Carter on Friday, Assistant U.S. Atty. Julie Hamill in Los Angeles wrote that that court process was no longer necessary, as it would not provide the relief that the federal government was seeking by filing its lawsuit. <\/p>\n \u201cIn light of the Supreme Court\u2019s denial, the United States is evaluating how to best ensure that American votes are protected, including by preventing vote dilution by noncitizens. In addition, by the time of this Court\u2019s hearing on Nov. 13 in this matter, California will have already commingled the challenged ballots with lawful ones,\u201d Hamill wrote. \u201cThere is then no way to get the challenged ballots segregated. As a result, the relief the United States sought and needed is no longer available \u2014 rendering voluntary dismissal necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n Hamill wrote that the Trump administration had sought to \u201cprotect American voters and to prevent the irreparable harm of state and local election officials including illegally cast votes in the final vote tabulation,\u201d but had \u201cexhausted its appeals to obtain timely relief\u201d by going to \u2014 and being denied by \u2014 the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n First Assistant U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli\u2019s office in Los Angeles \u2014 where Hamill works \u2014 referred questions about the filing to the Justice Department.<\/p>\n Kiersten Pels, a Justice Department spokesperson, said the litigation at issue was \u201cmoot\u201d but that the Trump administration \u201cis not backing down\u201d in its targeting of alleged noncitizen voters, including in a separate case in which it is still demanding that California \u201cconduct proper list maintenance, including removing noncitizens from the state\u2019s voter rolls \u2014 which will be crucial to ensure fair elections in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n Secretary of State Shirley Weber, a defendant in the case, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.<\/p>\n L.A. County Registrar-Recorder\/County Clerk Dean Logan, another defendant, said he was \u201cpleased that the administration has accepted the clarity of the court findings\u201d against it and ended its lawsuit.<\/p>\n \u201cAt each stage of this election, and in response to the Department of Justice, we have been clear that state and federal law sets well-defined standards for verifying and challenging voter eligibility,\u201d Logan said. \u201cOur commitment and focus remain on the fair, secure, accurate, and legal processes we are engaged in to complete and certify the election.\u201d<\/p>\n California Atty. Gen Rob Bonta, in a statement, said that after losing in every court it tried, including the Supreme Court, \u201cthe Trump Administration has given up its latest unlawful effort to interfere with California\u2019s elections and disenfranchise eligible voters.\u201d<\/p>\n Bonta added: \u201cRest assured: California has and always will defend your fundamental right to vote.\u201d<\/p>\n Tricia Webber, president of the California Assn. of Clerks and Election Officials, said state election officials \u201care very pleased\u201d with the voluntary dismissal of the case \u2014 which she said \u201caffirms that our elections are administered with the utmost integrity and care.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAt the same time, we are under no illusions. We recognize that this issue is unlikely to go away permanently, and we remain fully prepared to continue defending California\u2019s election administration against future challenges,\u201d she said. \u201cWe will always stand ready to protect every eligible voter\u2019s right to participate in a fair and secure election process.\u201d<\/p>\n The administration\u2019s filing \u2014 three days after President Trump\u2019s party took a drubbing in the midterms \u2014 marks a sudden and unremarkable conclusion to an unprecedented court battle in the days leading up to the election, when the federal government sought permission from the courts to force state and local elections officials to set aside votes during an ongoing election. <\/p>\n