Justice Department drops California ballot lawsuit

The Justice Department on Friday voluntarily dismissed its lawsuit seeking to have California set aside roughly 20,000 ballots it alleged might belong to noncitizens, ending the case after courts rejected its requests and the midterm election had concluded. The department had asked a federal court to require state and Los Angeles County officials to segregate ballots associated with a federal list of potentially ineligible voters. The lawsuit, filed in October, alleged California had not adequately investigated the list. The allegation that the roughly 20,000 voters were noncitizens was not established in the dismissal reports. In its filing, the department said the relief it sought was no longer available because California would have commingled the challenged ballots with lawful ballots by a scheduled November 13 hearing. The filing said there would then be no way to segregate them. Dismissing the case avoids that hearing and a planned review by a special master of the list’s accuracy and how it was compiled. The dismissal followed rulings against the department in federal district court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Supreme Court declined the administration’s...