Trump drops California ballot lawsuit — the Trump administration on Friday withdrew its legal challenge to California’s counting of more than 20,000 mail-in ballots, closing a case that had hung over the final days of the midterm campaign.
The Justice Department filed a notice of voluntary dismissal in federal court, three days after voters went to the polls. The move came after Democrats won by comfortable margins in all of California’s statewide contests and most of its congressional races, a result that took much of the practical point out of the lawsuit.
In its notice, the department repeated the argument it had pressed all week: the ballots it questioned could not be separated from the rest once they were accepted and counted. With the votes now tallied, it wrote, “the relief the United States sought is no longer available.”
Why Trump Drops California Ballot Lawsuit Now
The timing tells most of the story. The administration sued to stop California from counting mail-in ballots from more than 20,000 registered voters whom federal officials alleged were likely non-US citizens. The case was built for speed — the department argued in earlier filings that it needed quick action from the courts precisely because, once accepted, the contested ballots would be mixed in with every other vote and could never be pulled back out.
That urgency collapsed the moment the counting finished. A lawsuit asking a court to stop something that has already happened has nothing left to win, and the Justice Department’s own filing effectively conceded the point. The dismissal, filed on Friday, November 6, came the same week the election results made the stakes clear: the races the ballots might have affected were not close.
The Supreme Court Had Already Said No
The case had already run into trouble before the election. On Monday, November 2, the day before voters cast their ballots, the Supreme Court rejected the administration’s last-minute bid to temporarily block California from counting the ballots on the Justice Department’s list. The justices gave no detailed reasoning, but the refusal left the administration with no emergency route to freeze the count.
That defeat set the pattern for the week. Every attempt to get a court to intervene before the votes were counted ran into the same problem: judges were being asked to change the rules while voting was already underway, and the courts were not willing to do it on the administration’s timetable.
A Judge’s Warning About a “Monumental Change”
The skepticism was not limited to the Supreme Court. US District Judge David Carter, who heard the case in California, had appeared doubtful of the Justice Department’s lawsuit from the start. He expressed concern that the request could disenfranchise and confuse legitimate voters, and described it as a “monumental change” to election procedures at a moment when voting was already in progress.
That framing mattered. The administration’s argument rested on the claim that the ballots were likely cast by non-citizens, but the remedy it sought — blocking the count — would have swept up every ballot on its list, including any cast by lawful voters. Carter’s warning captured the trade-off at the heart of the case: an unproven allegation on one side, and the certain disenfranchisement of real voters on the other.
What Happens to the 20,000 Ballots
With the lawsuit withdrawn, the ballots at the centre of the dispute stay counted. California election officials had continued processing them while the case was pending, and the dismissal removes the last legal cloud over them.
The underlying allegation — that the voters on the list were likely non-citizens — was never tested in court. The voluntary dismissal ends the case without any ruling on whether the claim had merit, and without any finding about the voters involved. What the case does leave behind is a record of how far the administration was willing to go, and how quickly the courts pushed back.
What the Dismissal Means After the Midterms
The withdrawal fits a wider pattern in the days since the midterms. Democrats won control of Congress, along with comfortable wins across California, and the administration’s post-election legal strategy has been narrowing ever since. The California lawsuit was one of the most aggressive election challenges of the cycle; its quiet end, in a one-page filing, stands in sharp contrast to the urgency with which it was launched.
For California officials, the dismissal is a vindication of the way the count was handled. For the voters whose ballots were challenged, it is the end of a week in which their votes were treated as suspect. And for the administration, it is a reminder that the courts — including the Supreme Court — were unwilling to rewrite election procedures in the final days of a campaign.
The ballots are counted, the results stand, and the lawsuit is over.
Source: Reuters