Federal judge bars DoJ from threatening election workers to stop processing ballots

A federal judge has prevented the Department of Justice (DoJ) from coercing election workers to halt the processing of ballots or segregate them based on the government's belief that they may have been cast by ineligible voters. The order, issued late Friday, also bars the DoJ from demanding local election officials keep the ballots separate.

This decision adds to the Trump administration's setbacks in asserting control over local elections. Earlier, a federal appeals court rejected the DoJ's request to exclude disputed ballots from California, the most recent obstacle for the administration's attempts to control state-run elections. The administration has claimed that California sent ballots to approximately 20,000 individuals who might not be US citizens and wants the state to set aside those ballots until citizenship can be verified.

California officials dispute this claim, stating that the list is unreliable and likely includes many US citizens. A district court judge denied the DoJ's request on Wednesday, warning that the government's demands could disenfranchise citizens. The appeals court's majority opinion, written by Judge Mark J. Bennett (appointed by Trump) and Judge Gabriel P. Sanchez (appointed by former President Joe Biden), found that there is no practical way to identify and segregate individual ballots without causing significant harm to the entire system.

The Department of Justice responded with a statement reaffirming that federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting, but emphasized that enforcing that law is not an agenda item; it is merely the department's responsibility.