SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge on Friday blocked the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security from threatening election officials and workers over claims that some registered voters are not eligible to vote.
U.S. District Judge Trina L. Thompson of the Northern District of California issued a temporary restraining order on Oct. 30 in the case SEIU v. U.S. Department of Justice, No. 3:26-cv-12800, according to reporting by the Associated Press and The Hill. The case was brought 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.
The order runs until 5 p.m. on Nov. 16. Until then, the two departments may not threaten, intimidate or coerce state and local election officials or workers to stop them processing a registered voter’s ballot only because the administration says that voter is ineligible, according to the reporting.
The order also bars the departments from demanding that officials purge specific voters from the rolls, refuse to give them ballots, or set their ballots aside on that same basis. It bars them from threatening to prosecute officials who refuse those demands, or who count ballots in the way the law requires them to count them.
Thompson also ordered the departments to notify every government that received their ballot letters that the threats are now blocked. The Justice Department must also disclose any pending search warrant applications and grand jury subpoenas tied to its voter lists, according to the order described in the reporting.
The ruling came after weeks of pressure on states. According to the reporting, the department had demanded that California set aside about 20,000 ballots and Washington set aside 405 ballots, and it subpoenaed election workers in Los Angeles County. On Wednesday, another federal judge rejected its effort over the California ballots, and on Friday an appeals court also refused it.
At the same time, the department wrote to all 50 states. In letters dated Oct. 29 and signed by Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter, officials were reminded that federal law, cited as 52 U.S.C. 20701, requires them to keep election records for 22 months. The letters said willful failure to do so can be punished by up to a year in prison and a $1,000 fine.
Thompson wrote that ballots have already been issued and Americans have begun voting, according to the reporting. She found that the groups that brought the case are likely to succeed. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to the ruling in the reporting.
Why it matters
Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3, and early and mail voting are already under way. State and local workers run the count, often in small offices with few staff. The case raises a basic question: who decides whether a registered voter’s ballot is processed, and on what evidence. The plaintiffs argued that threats of prosecution could scare workers into holding back valid ballots. The order keeps the normal process in place while the case is heard.
The department must respond by noon on Monday, Nov. 2. A hearing on a longer preliminary injunction is set for Nov. 13, after Election Day but before this order expires on Nov. 16. That decision could shape how disputed ballots from this election are handled. Read more in the full report on the ruling.
