Judge Orders Trump Administration to Stop Threatening Election Officials Days Before the Midterms

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 30 (TodayViralUSA) — A federal judge late Friday ordered the Trump administration to stop threatening state and local election officials with criminal prosecution and to stop demanding that they set aside ballots or purge voters it claims are ineligible, delivering a sweeping rebuke four days before the Nov. 3 midterm elections.

U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson of the Northern District of California issued a temporary restraining order that bars the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security from actions that “threaten, intimidate or coerce” election officials or workers into halting the processing of any registered voter’s ballot solely because the administration alleges the voter is ineligible. The order runs through Nov. 16, nearly two weeks after Election Day, and a further hearing is set for Nov. 13.

What the order blocks

While the order is in effect, federal officials may not demand that election officials in any state segregate ballots, remove voters from the rolls, refuse to issue ballots to specific voters or stop counting ballots based on the government’s eligibility claims, according to CNN and Politico. Thompson also directed the Justice Department to inform the court of any pending search warrant applications or subpoenas, CBS News reported.

“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. “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.”

The judge found that federal officials had likely violated the Voting Rights Act’s ban on attempts to intimidate, threaten or coerce people who help others vote, and that the government was likely acting beyond its legal authority. “Ballots have already been issued. Americans have already begun voting. Workers have already begun processing ballots,” she wrote. “Given the consequences of inaction, the Court sees no reason to delay its ruling.”

Who brought the case

The lawsuit was filed by the Service Employees International Union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the League of United Latin American Citizens and the NAACP. It accuses Attorney General Todd Blanche and other senior officials of a coordinated pressure campaign against the people who run elections.

The complaint pointed to letters that Harmeet Dhillon, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, sent to all 50 states and the District of Columbia in July warning that local officials could face prosecution, as well as the department’s more recent demands for the names of voters it believes may be noncitizens. Last week, federal prosecutors wrote to election officials in 57 of California’s 58 counties asking them to help identify suspected noncitizens within 48 hours, hand over nonpublic data such as Social Security and driver’s license numbers, and set aside the mail ballots of anyone whose citizenship could not be confirmed. One letter, to San Bernardino County, attached a list of 1,133 people and warned that “the legal consequences for either facilitating or ignoring federal crimes are significant,” NBC News reported.

A string of losses in court

The ruling capped a difficult day in court for the administration. Hours earlier, a divided panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Justice Department’s emergency bid to force California to set aside ballots from more than 20,000 people it says may be noncitizens, finding there was “no feasible way” to do so “without potentially catastrophic effects on the entire system.” The department has also issued grand jury subpoenas to Los Angeles County election workers and is pressing a separate case in Washington state.

The Justice Department did not immediately say whether it would appeal Thompson’s order.