Judge bars Justice Department from threatening election workers days before midterms

The Trump administration suffered two court defeats on Friday, four days before the Nov. 3 congressional elections. U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson in Northern California issued a temporary restraining order barring the Justice Department from threatening election officials and workers with prosecution to stop them from processing ballots. The order also bars the department from demanding that local officials remove voters on its list of alleged noncitizens from the rolls, refuse them ballots or segregate their ballots. The suit was filed by election workers' unions, including the Service Employees International Union.

Thompson wrote that “the public has a paramount interest in ensuring that election officials and workers are able to carry out their work.” “Election Day is around the corner,” she said in explaining the speed of her ruling. According to The Associated Press, the department had subpoenaed Los Angeles County election officials, and at least three were asked to appear before a grand jury the day after the election. Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, had warned that officials who knowingly process a noncitizen's ballot open themselves to legal jeopardy.

The department defended its approach. “Every ballot cast by an ineligible voter cancels out the vote of an American citizen,” spokesperson Kiersten Pels said, according to AP. Also on Friday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected for the second time in less than a week the administration's bid to set aside about 20,000 mail-in ballots in California. According to Al Jazeera, the majority said the request would violate the Constitution and risk disenfranchising eligible voters, while Judge Patrick Bumatay dissented, calling it reasonable.