Justice Department Asks Appeals Court to Intervene in California Mail Ballot Lawsuit

The US Justice Department asked an appeals court on Thursday to intervene in its lawsuit against California, which seeks to temporarily block the state from counting mail-in ballots from more than 20,000 voters. The department wants to jump-start the case, which is aimed at compelling the state not to count the ballots. The Trump administration claims the ballots were sent to noncitizens.

The New York Times leads with the department's attempt to jump-start the stalled lawsuit. It attributes the noncitizen allegation to the administration and describes the figure as as many as 20,000 ballots. Reuters leads with the request that the appeals court step in and describes the suit as an effort to temporarily block the counting of more than 20,000 ballots. Newsmax frames the story around the department seeking to block the ballots of more than 20,000 California voters, and its headline puts the voter count first. All three agree on the Thursday timing, the Justice Department as the party asking for intervention, and the figure of roughly 20,000 ballots. They differ on whether that number is a ceiling or a floor, and on how much attention they give to the legal procedure versus the ballots and voters affected.