The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday asked a federal court in California to dismiss its own lawsuit that had sought to keep state and Los Angeles County officials from counting about 20,000 ballots the department said may have gone to noncitizens^1,2.

The Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times, reporting independently, said the motion came after Election Day and after courts had already refused to order the ballots set aside^1,2.

AP said California officials reported about 9 million ballots processed by early Friday, with nearly 5 million still to be counted, and that processed ballots are anonymized¹. The department's filing said that by a hearing set for Nov. 13 the challenged ballots would already be mixed with others, so the relief it sought was no longer available^1,2.

The Times reported that Assistant U.S. Attorney Julie Hamill wrote that, after the Supreme Court denied the administration's appeal, there was no way to segregate the challenged ballots². Hamill also wrote that the government was evaluating how to protect votes, including by trying to prevent dilution by noncitizens, according to the Times².

AP said U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli in Los Angeles had previously told a court the suit would lose meaning after Election Day because the ballots could not be sequestered¹. The suit was filed in mid-October after ballots had already gone to the state's registered voters and after hundreds of thousands had been processed, AP reported¹.

Judge David O. Carter, who denied the earlier request to hold the ballots, had appointed a special master to examine the government's list, AP and the Times reported^1,2. California officials have said the list is outdated and includes eligible voters¹. The Times said Carter found the government's request likely unconstitutional because states and Congress, not the executive branch, control elections, and likely ran afoul of a federal limit on sweeping voter-roll checks just before an election².

The Times said a 9th Circuit panel had also rejected the request and that the Supreme Court denied an appeal with no noted dissents². AP said the Justice Department in Washington did not respond to a request for comment Friday evening¹.

AP said other litigation over the same suspected-noncitizen list continues, as does an appeal of a separate, dismissed Alaska Senate-race suit¹. It also reported more than 30 arrests in California of noncitizens accused of illegally registering to vote, some also accused of voting in earlier elections; those criminal cases are separate from the civil dismissal¹.