The Justice Department on Friday asked a federal judge to dismiss its own lawsuit that sought to keep California from counting mail ballots linked to about 20,000 people the government says are likely noncitizens, the Associated Press reported.
The move came about a week before a Nov. 13 hearing where a court-appointed special master was set to test the reliability of the federal list. In its motion, the department said the ballots had by then been mixed in with lawful ones, so the relief it wanted was no longer available.
The Santa Clara County connection
In October, federal officials also mailed lists of names to individual county election offices. Santa Clara County, which runs elections for Saratoga, confirmed to CNN that it received one, Scripps News reported.
Both sides
When the suit was filed, Attorney General Todd Blanche said "state-facilitated voter fraud is unacceptable." State officials argued the list was outdated and included eligible voters, and a federal judge, the 9th Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court all declined the administration's emergency requests.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said Friday the administration chose to drop the case rather than face questions about its list in court.
All California results remain unofficial until counties finish their canvass.