In the United States, voters choose leaders in elections, and in California ballots were already being mailed out. The US Justice Department, the federal government's law office, sued California on 15 October. It asked a court to stop the state counting about 20,000 ballots, which it suspects come from people who are not US citizens.
California refused to set those ballots aside. Its lawyer, Michael Cohen, told the court that the law the department points to has nothing to do with running elections. It makes it a misdemeanor, a minor crime, for a non-citizen to vote in a federal election, and it targets voters, not election workers.
On Tuesday 27 October, Judge David Carter held a hearing. He said any threats to election workers should stop at once. He seemed doubtful about the demand and said he would rule on Wednesday.