DOJ moves to drop bid to block California from counting ballots cast by alleged noncitizens
WASHINGTON, DC: Donald Trump’s Department of Justice has filed to dismiss its own lawsuit against California after trying and failing to force the golden state to set aside up to 20,000 alleged "noncitizen" votes and refrain from counting them before Election Day.
The DOJ sought to prevent the state from counting the ballots until it could verify voters’ immigration status.
The motion to dismiss the lawsuit came after a bruising midterm setback for Republicans, who suffered major losses on Tuesday, surrendering at least seven Senate seats and 42 House seats, with several races still awaiting final results.
DOJ says California will be irreparably 'commingled the challenged ballots with lawful ones' before next hearing
California had processed roughly 9 million ballots as of early Friday, with nearly 5 million still left to be counted, according to state election officials. In its motion to dismiss the lawsuit, the state argued that by the time the scheduled hearing takes place, the disputed ballots will already have "commingled the challenged ballots with lawful ones."
“The relief the United States sought and needed is no longer available—rendering voluntary dismissal necessary,” the motion said.
Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, previously repeated the same argument in court, arguing that the lawsuit would be irrelevant after Election Day, because there would be no way to sequester the ones allegedly belonging to noncitizens.
Essayli said at the time the lawsuit was filed that his goal was to “safeguard the integrity of the election so it doesn't have an effect on the upcoming election."
“We want to stop the illegal voting. We don't want to chase it later,” he said outside of court the week before the election.
The request to dismiss the lawsuit came days after the Supreme Court ruled against the Trump administration in an emergency order ahead of Election Day, preventing it from forcing California to set aside the ballots.
Meanwhile, California officials have maintained that the voting list is outdated and inaccurate, arguing that it included ineligible voters.
Another DOJ lawsuit at the centre of major controversy
The case was at the forefront of President Donald Trump's administration's effort to assert control over state-run elections across the country, which Trump has said are rife with illegal voting without providing evidence.
Another DOJ lawsuit that drew controversy was its pre-election challenge in Alaska, which came at Trump's direction and sought to block the state’s election certification if incumbent Sen Dan Sullivan (R) lost, arguing the presence of another candidate on the ballot, Daniel J Sullivan Jr, could have confused voters.
A judge dismissed that lawsuit before Election Day, but the Trump administration vowed to appeal.
As of Friday, Sullivan narrowly trails his Democratic opponent, Mary Peltola, in the Senate race — but no winner has been projected, as thousands of votes remain uncounted.
Claims of noncitizen voting have been a recurring focus of the Trump administration, which has previously sent warning letters to state election officials and pressed states to hand over their voter registration records to identify individuals who are not US citizens.
