The Justice Department moved Friday to voluntarily dismiss its own lawsuit seeking to block California from counting roughly 20,000 ballots it had alleged were cast by noncitizens — a reversal that comes just days after Republicans lost significant ground in this week's midterms.

The motion, filed in federal court, argued that by the time of a hearing scheduled for next week, California would have already "commingled the challenged ballots with lawful ones," making the relief the government sought "no longer available." CBS News and NBC News both confirmed the filing Friday.

A monthslong fight

The DOJ sued in mid-October, after ballots had already gone out to all 23 million of California's registered voters, demanding the state segregate roughly 20,000 ballots tied to a federal list of suspected noncitizens until their status could be verified. California officials countered that the list was outdated and swept up legitimate citizens.

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter rejected the government's request outright, warning that separating ballots at that late stage risked disenfranchising citizens and would "wreak havoc" on the election. He later appointed a special master to examine the accuracy of the list — a review that was due to begin next week. On the eve of Election Day, the Supreme Court rejected the DOJ's emergency appeal in a one-line order.

WE WANT TO STOP THE ILLEGAL VOTING. WE DON'T WANT TO CHASE IT LATER.

Bill Essayli, the U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles who argued the case, had previously said in court that the lawsuit would become moot after Election Day because there would be no way to separate out the disputed ballots once they were processed. By early Friday, the state had already processed about 9 million of its ballots.

Reaction and what's left

Critics, including immigrant and voting-rights groups, have cast the suit as part of a broader administration push to influence how states run their elections; Trump has repeatedly claimed widespread illegal voting without providing evidence. DOJ headquarters in Washington did not respond to a request for comment Friday, and the Los Angeles U.S. Attorney's Office referred questions back to Washington.

Dropping this suit doesn't end the broader fight. The department remains locked in separate litigation with immigrant and voting-rights groups over its use of the suspected-noncitizen list, and California prosecutors say they've already arrested more than 30 noncitizens on charges of illegally registering or voting — cases that will proceed independent of Friday's dismissal.