Federal judge bars Justice Department threats against election workers

A federal judge in the United States has barred the Justice Department from threatening election workers to halt ballot processing, according to reports published on 31 October, ahead of the 3 November midterm elections. The restrictions also cover demands that local officials separate or decline to count ballots identified as potentially ineligible.¹²

Limits on prosecution threats

The Straits Times identified the judge as US District Judge Trina Thompson and reported that she issued a temporary restraining order after finding that the department had gone too far in threatening prosecution of state and county officials who did not cooperate with the administration’s election demands.²

According to that report, the order prevents the Trump administration from demanding voter removals, refusals to accept ballots or separation of ballots on the basis of its list of alleged noncitizen voters. The newspaper said the Justice Department did not immediately respond to the decision.²

Thompson’s reasoning emphasised the public interest in allowing election officials and workers to perform their duties under federal law and election procedures with voting day approaching. The Straits Times reported that the department had threatened prosecution of officials who did not cooperate during October.²

California ballot dispute

In a separate ruling, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Justice Department’s request that California set aside disputed ballots, the Guardian reported. The newspaper said the decision was 2–1, following a district court rejection that warned the demands could deprive citizens of their votes.¹

According to the Guardian, the department claimed that roughly 20,000 possible non-US citizens had received ballots from California. California officials challenged the reliability of the list, saying it was likely to contain many citizens. The allegation did not establish that those listed were ineligible.¹

The appeals majority said identifying and separating particular individuals’ ballots was not practicable without risking severe disruption to the election system. Election officials said votes that had already been processed could not be traced back to the voters who submitted them.¹

The Guardian reported that millions of people had already voted in California and hundreds of thousands of ballots had been processed. The Justice Department defended its position by saying federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting and that enforcing that prohibition was part of its responsibilities.¹

Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, warned: “Any election official who knowingly processes the ballot of a noncitizen is opening themselves to legal jeopardy.” His warning concerned knowing conduct, while California officials disputed the accuracy of the department’s underlying list.¹