Judge Orders Trump Administration to Stop Threatening to Prosecute Election Officials, Reuters Reports

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 next week's U.S. midterm elections, which will determine control of Congress, where Republicans currently hold narrow majorities in the House and the Senate.

In the months leading up to the midterms, President Donald Trump's administration has taken an aggressive approach to election oversight, pressing states for voter-registration data and saying stricter measures are needed to ensure election security and public confidence in the vote, Reuters reported. But the Justice Department went too far this month when it threatened to prosecute state and county officials who do not cooperate with the administration's election-related initiatives, U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson ruled, in a lawsuit brought by election workers' unions and some other groups.

"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 wrote in her temporary restraining order, as quoted by Reuters. The Justice Department had no immediate comment on the ruling.

Thompson, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, 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 midterm elections, based on an administration list of alleged non-citizen voters, Reuters reported. Critics, including political experts and Democratic and some Republican election officials, have viewed the administration's moves as federal overreach, and some election officials told Reuters they were preparing for potential federal interference in the elections.