Justice Department drops suit over about 20,000 California mail ballots

The U.S. Justice Department dropped its lawsuit seeking to make California set aside mail ballots from about 20,000 people it called likely noncitizens, according to a notice of voluntary dismissal it filed Friday in federal court in Los Angeles.  Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the dismissal the same day.

In the notice, the department says that by the Nov. 13 hearing before U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, the challenged ballots would already be mixed with lawful ones.  It says the relief it wanted was no longer possible, and that it is weighing other ways to keep noncitizens from voting.

Bonta's office said the department dropped the case to avoid a hearing on whether its list was reliable.  The office lists four rulings against the federal government from Oct. 26 to Nov. 2, ending with the U.S. Supreme Court's denial of an emergency request.  "Rather than face that scrutiny, it chose to drop its case," Bonta said.

Neither document says how many of the ballots, if any, came from Santa Clara County voters.

The Daily News first reported on the case in its Oct. 29 story on federal pressure on the county's election.

Source:  U.S. notice of voluntary dismissal, *United States v. State of California*, No. 2:26-cv-12025, filed Nov. 6, 2026; California Attorney General news release, Nov. 6, 2026.