A US federal court has issued a temporary order barring officials in President Donald Trump's administration from threatening or intimidating election workers, or pressuring them to stop processing or set aside ballots on the grounds that some voters are ineligible, amid accusations of violations of the Voting Rights Act and of overstepping states' constitutional powers to run elections.
According to the Washington Post, Judge Trina Thompson barred the Trump administration from threatening local and state election officials with prosecution for processing ballots, a ruling expected to limit the administration's efforts to challenge the validity of some votes cast in the midterm elections.
The order, issued late on Friday by the federal court for the Northern District of California, requires the departments of Justice and Homeland Security to stop asking election officials to halt processing or set aside ballots based on government claims that the voters were ineligible.
The ruling came in response to a lawsuit by unions representing election workers and civil rights organisations, which accused senior Trump administration officials of campaigns of pressure, intimidation and coercion against state and local election officials under the pretext of combating illegal voting.
Judge Thompson said the plaintiffs had presented evidence suggesting that the defendants, including Attorney General Todd Blanche and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, may have violated the Voting Rights Act through intimidation and coercion of election workers and exceeded their legal authority, as the Constitution gives states responsibility for running legislative elections.
