By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON, Oct 30 (Reuters) – A US 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.
The ruling comes days before next week’s US midterm elections that will determine control of Congress, where Republicans currently hold narrow majorities in the House of Representatives and Senate. Although several key races appear closely contested, polls favor Democrats to take control of the House and give them a plausible chance of a Senate majority.
In the months leading up to the midterms, President Donald Trump’s administration has taken an aggressive approach to election oversight, such as pressing states for voter-registration data, saying stricter measures are needed to ensure election security and public confidence in the vote.
But the Justice Department went too far this month when it threatened to prosecute state and county officials who do not cooperate with the Trump administration’s election-related initiatives, US District Judge Trina Thompson ruled in connection with 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.
The Justice Department had no immediate comment on the ruling.
Critics, including political experts as well as Democratic and some Republican election officials, have viewed the Trump administration’s moves as federal overreach. Some election officials have told Reuters they were preparing for potential federal interference in the midterm elections.
Thompson, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, ordered the Trump 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 a Trump administration list of alleged non-citizen voters.
Trump has made false claims related to elections in the past, including not acknowledging his defeat in the 2020 election.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Sergio Non and Tom Hogue)
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