Judge bars federal pressure on election workers over disputed ballots

A federal judge has barred the Trump administration from threatening election workers or pressuring them to stop processing ballots it says may have been cast by ineligible voters, issuing the order days before the Nov. 3 midterm elections.

The order, issued Friday night by U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson in California, prohibits federal officials from threatening, intimidating or coercing state and local election workers to halt processing a registered voter’s ballot solely because the administration alleges that voter is ineligible. It also bars the Justice Department from demanding that local officials segregate or decline to count ballots the federal government considers suspect. The order runs through Nov. 16.

“In the lead-up to the election, high-ranking DOJ and DHS officials have engaged in a campaign to intimidate, threaten, and coerce state and local officials and employees who are engaged in administering the ongoing midterm 2026 election,” Thompson wrote.

The ruling follows administration efforts to have states set aside ballots it says could have been cast by noncitizens. “Although Defendants claim that their actions are designed to halt unlawful voting by noncitizens, their actions are likely to have the effect of interfering with election administration and disenfranchising lawful voters,” Thompson wrote.

In California, the administration has alleged that the state sent ballots to about 20,000 people who may not be U.S. citizens, according to The Guardian. It sought to have those ballots set aside and left uncounted until voters’ citizenship could be verified. California officials say the list is highly unreliable and likely includes many citizens.

A federal district judge denied the California request Wednesday, warning that it could disenfranchise citizens. On Friday, a federal appeals court rejected the Justice Department’s bid to set aside the disputed ballots. The Ninth Circuit panel ruled 2-1 that identifying and separating them was not feasible without risking broad disruption.

“As the district court found – and we discern no clear error – there is no feasible way to identify and segregate the ballots of specific individuals without potentially catastrophic effects on the entire system,” the panel’s majority wrote. Judges Mark J. Bennett, appointed by President Donald Trump, and Gabriel P. Sanchez, appointed by former President Joe Biden, authored the majority opinion.

Millions of Californians have already voted, and hundreds of thousands of ballots have been processed, The Guardian reported. Election officials say processed votes cannot be matched back to the people who cast them. NBC News reported that a separate case over ballots in Washington state remains pending.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to The Guardian’s request for comment on the California appeals ruling. In a statement about its broader efforts to address noncitizen voting, it said: “Federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting. Enforcing that law is not an agenda item. It is the Department’s job.”

Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, had warned: “Any election official who knowingly processes the ballot of a noncitizen is opening themselves to legal jeopardy.”