CBS News reported that a judge denounced a lawsuit brought by the Justice Department that sought to force California election workers to set aside mail ballots returned from up to 20,000 alleged noncitizens. According to the CBS News report, the department's attempt was unsuccessful.

The CBS News summary does not describe the judge's reasoning or the terms of the ruling, so those details are not included here. The headline and summary together indicate that the judge criticized the lawsuit and that the effort to set the ballots aside did not succeed.

PBS NewsHour reported that a judge is weighing a lawsuit brought by the campaign of Mary Peltola, the Alaska Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate. According to the PBS NewsHour report, the campaign is seeking a list of absentee voters whose ballots have been rejected. The report was written by Becky Bohrer of the Associated Press.

The PBS NewsHour summary places the Alaska race among the most closely watched of the midterm elections.

The two reports use different terms for the ballots at issue. CBS News refers to mail ballots in California, while PBS NewsHour refers to absentee ballots in Alaska. The summaries do not say whether the two matters are connected.

This account relies only on the headlines and summaries of the two reports. Where those summaries are silent, including on any ruling date or final outcome in the Alaska case, this story does not fill the gap.

Sources: CBS News: Judge denounces DOJ lawsuit over California mail ballots; PBS NewsHour: Judge weighs lawsuit brought by Peltola campaign over absentee ballots in Alaska's US Senate race.