A federal judge issued a sweeping order Friday night blocking the Trump administration from threatening or intimidating election officials amid pressure tactics used by the administration in the weeks leading up to the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
The eight-page order prohibits any action that may “threaten, intimidate or coerce state or local elections officials or workers to demand that they halt processing the ballots of any registered voter solely on the basis that the ballot belongs to an individual alleged by [the administration] to be ineligible to vote.”
U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson, who’s based in California, wrote, “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.”
The order comes in the wake of efforts to require states like California and Washington to separate out ballots the administration says could be cast by noncitizens. An appeals court ruled against the administration in California this week; the Washington case is pending.
“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 Friday.
The judge’s order extends through Nov. 16, nearly two weeks after Election Day.
The Justice Department sent letters to election officials in 57 of California’s 58 counties last week, directing them to cooperate with the DOJ’s investigations of illegal voting or face investigations themselves.
“As you’re aware, federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal elections,” a letter sent to an election official in San Bernardino County on Oct. 22 said. “I write to seek your help to protect the integrity of the ongoing federal election.”
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bilal Essayli wrote in the letter that he was attaching a list of “1133 likely aliens” registered to vote in San Bernardino County.
“Within 48 hours, we ask that you commit to working with DOJ and DHS to identify who on the accompanying list is a citizen and who is not,” Essayli wrote, adding, “That means sending us the nonpublic information associated with each suspected alien’s registration,” including Social Security numbers, state IDs or driver’s licenses.
“For individuals whom citizenship status cannot be confirmed, we request that you immediately instruct the appropriate elections official to segregate—not cancel—those individuals’ vote-by-mail ballots until their citizenship status can be determined,” Essayli wrote.
Essayli asserted that the list of alleged noncitizens was created by a “multilayered, multiagency investigative methodology” by DHS. He urged the election officials to comply, reiterating that “The legal consequences for either facilitating or ignoring federal crimes are significant.”
In a Friday ruling, a federal appeals court rejected the Trump administration’s request to force California election officials to segregate ballots that it says are from noncitizens.
The decision followed a separate ruling from a federal appeals court Monday to also deny the DOJ’s bid to block more than 20,000 ballots from being counted over claims of noncitizens being on the state’s voter rolls.
And Wednesday, a federal judge argued that the Justice Department’s request to segregate the ballots “violates longstanding constitutional principles mandating that states have control over their elections,” and questioned the administration’s processes for identifying the alleged noncitizens.
