Bernie Sanders. | AP Photo/Matt Rourke Sanders campaign seeks emergency injunction to keep California polls open

OAKLAND — Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) campaign filed for an emergency injunction tonight to extend California voting hours as Los Angeles elections officials urged voters to remain in line even as the 8 p.m. closing hour approached.

Ahead of California’s critical primary, Los Angeles County — by far the state’s most populous — rolled out a revamped system tethered to new vote centers and deployed a new fleet of voting machines ahead of the state’s fiercely contested Democratic primary.


Some voters reported grappling with sometimes hourslong waits. The Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters emphasized an existing rule allowing voters to cast ballots after 8 p.m., when polls close, so long as they were in line beforehand.

The Sanders campaign, which is counting on a dominant showing in California after Joe Biden scored victories in several other states, went a step further by filing an emergency motion to keep polls open. The filing in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California cited “extreme wait times” at multiple Los Angeles locations and alleged those delays violated the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments.