Explained: US Justice Department drops bid to force California to set aside disputed ballots

The U.S. Department of Justice moved to dismiss its own lawsuit seeking to stop California from counting about 20,000 ballots

special master

A court-appointed official tasked with evaluating the accuracy of the disputed voter list

commingled

Mixed together, in this case referring to challenged ballots being mixed with lawful ones once processed

anonymized

Once a ballot is processed, it can no longer be traced back to an individual voter

grand jury

A group convened to decide whether there is enough evidence to bring criminal charges