Judge Carter Closes Justice Department's California Mail-Ballot Suit, Writing 'The Right to Vote Is Sacred'

Status: U.S. District Judge David O. Carter on Tuesday formally closed United States v. California, No. 2:26-cv-12025, and canceled a hearing that had been set for Friday, CBS News reports. The Justice Department had already filed a notice of voluntary dismissal on Nov. 6. The department's claims that the challenged ballots were cast by noncitizens were allegations; the court did not find them proven.

Judge David Carter, a Clinton appointee sitting in the Central District of California, issued a one-paragraph order Tuesday closing the department's lawsuit against California officials and Dean Logan, the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder and county clerk. The suit, filed in mid-October after voting in California had begun, sought to force election workers to set aside mail ballots returned by people the department identified as suspected noncitizens—up to 20,000 people it said it believed were not U.S. citizens but were registered to vote, CBS News reported.

"This lawsuit attempted to disrupt an ongoing election and create confusion and uncertainty for voters and election workers alike," Carter wrote, according to CBS News. "The right to vote is sacred. So, too, is trust in our democracy."

The department asked the court to keep those ballots uncounted until each voter's citizenship could be verified. Carter rejected that request. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the Supreme Court also declined to grant the department the emergency relief it sought before the Nov. 3 midterms. The department's Nov. 6 notice of dismissal cites the Supreme Court's Nov. 2 denial of an application for an injunction pending appeal in United States v. California, No. 26A624.

"In light of the Supreme Court's denial, the United States is evaluating how to best ensure that American votes are protected, including by preventing vote dilution by noncitizens," a Justice Department lawyer wrote in that filing, language CBS News also quoted. The notice said that by the time of the court's next hearing, then set for Nov. 13, "California will have already commingled the challenged ballots with lawful ones. There is then no way to get the challenged ballots segregated. As a result, the relief the United States sought and needed is no longer available—rendering voluntary dismissal necessary."

The department has argued that it was trying to prevent illegal votes from diluting lawful ones. California and local election officials opposed the demand to set the ballots aside. Carter's Tuesday order closed the case and canceled the Friday hearing, CBS News reported. The department's allegations that the people on its list were noncitizens, and that noncitizens had cast the challenged ballots, were never found proven.

The California case is separate from a wave of Justice Department suits seeking states' unredacted voter rolls. On Tuesday, a Delaware judge rejected a similar records demand in Judge Andrews Rejects Justice Department Bid for Delaware's Unredacted Voter Rolls.

Related

• Judge Andrews Rejects Justice Department Bid for Delaware's Unredacted Voter Rolls
• Appeals Court Refuses DOJ Bid to Freeze 20,000 California Mail Ballots a Week Before Midterms