Judge Orders Trump Administration to Stop Threatening Election Officials Ahead of the Midterms

A U.S. judge ordered the Justice Department on Friday to stop threatening to prosecute state and local election officials who do not comply with the Trump administration's demands related to voting by alleged non-citizens, Reuters reported. The ruling comes days before the midterm elections on Tuesday, Nov. 3, which will determine control of Congress, where Republicans hold narrow majorities in the House and the Senate.

U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson ruled in a lawsuit brought by election workers' unions and other groups that the department went too far this month when it threatened to prosecute officials who do not cooperate with its election-related initiatives. As published by Reuters, Thompson wrote in her temporary restraining order: "Because the public has a paramount interest in ensuring that election officials and workers are able to carry out their work in accordance with federal law and election procedure, and the official day of the Elections is only a couple of days away, the balance of the equities and public interest weigh in Plaintiffs' favor."

Thompson ordered the administration to refrain from demanding that local election officials remove voters from statewide rolls, refuse ballots to specific voters, or segregate ballots cast in the midterms, based on an administration list of alleged non-citizen voters, Reuters reported. The Justice Department had no immediate comment on the ruling, according to Reuters. For Palm Beach County, where early voting ends Sunday, Nov. 1 and Election Day follows on Tuesday, the order is a national ruling with a local address: the county's own election workers are among the officials the order is written to protect while they carry out the vote.