Key Facts

• The lawsuit sought to require California to set aside ballots linked to people the federal government alleged were noncitizens until their immigration status could be checked.
• California officials said the government’s list was outdated and included eligible voters.
• A federal judge had allowed California to proceed with the election and appointed a special master to examine the list’s accuracy.
• The Supreme Court rejected the Justice Department’s emergency appeal to require California to separate the ballots.
• California officials said the state had processed about 9 million ballots by early Friday, with nearly 5 million still to count.
• The lawsuit was filed in mid-October, after ballots had been sent to the state’s 23 million registered voters and hundreds of thousands had been processed.
• California prosecutors had recently arrested more than 30 noncitizens accused of illegally registering to vote; some were also accused of voting in earlier elections.
• The Justice Department remains involved in litigation over its use of the list of people it suspects are noncitizens.