Midterms: US government gives up in dispute over voters in California

The aim of the initiative was to ensure that postal ballots that were sent in by people who, in the authority's view, were presumably not entitled to vote, were stored separately. According to the ministry's wishes, the ballot papers should not be counted until the identities have been clarified. Courts rejected the claim before this week's election.

In California, in addition to the seats in the House of Representatives, decisions were also made about filling the post of governor. Democrat Xavier Becerra won by a large margin over Steve Hilton, who ran for Trump's Republicans.

Unproven claims

The US Department of Justice said it suspected California of allowing around 20,000 people to vote in the general election who were not citizens.

The Trump administration also tried to intimidate election officials in California with subpoenas. This was also about the unproven claim that thousands of people are supposed to be registered as voters who are not citizens.

A few days before the election, a federal judge finally banned the Justice Department from threatening election officials with criminal prosecution when processing ballot papers. The agency should not pressure election officials and poll workers to stop processing ballots from registered voters solely because of what the government claims is a lack of voting eligibility, Judge Trina Thompson ruled.

Thompson called the intimidation of poll workers and threats of law enforcement unlawful and arbitrary. Unions and civil rights groups had sued the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security.

The Americans have punished their president, the fight for his successor is beginning: Young stars are pushing forward among the Democrats, while Vice Vance is keeping their distance among the Republicans. How dangerous will Trump's final years in office be?