Judge Declines to Halt D.H.S. Demands for States to Screen Ballots

Judge James E. Boasberg ruled that states had largely succeeded in rebuffing the Trump administration's efforts to disqualify voters, and that Democratic plaintiffs hadn't suffered direct impacts.

A federal judge late on Monday turned down a request by Democratic lawmakers and party organizations to prohibit the Trump administration from coercing states into screening incoming ballots.

The judge, James E. Boasberg of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia, assessing the last-minute push by the Trump administration on the eve of the midterm elections to try to disqualify voters in a handful of Democratic-led states, wrote that states like California that were targeted had already largely succeeded in rebuffing the federal government.

He added that until there were signs that states could not stop the Trump administration's efforts "to dictate changes to their voting procedures," the groups suing had not suffered any direct impacts that he could step in to correct.

Judge Boasberg wrote that states were "hardly bit players" when it came to federal elections, and that the four targeted -- California, Nevada, Washington and Pennsylvania -- had successfully used their constitutional authority to challenge the Trump administration's claims of voter fraud. When each received letters from the Homeland Security Department purportedly showing that they had allowed noncitizens to register to vote, each pushed back, demanding clearer evidence and declining to categorically remove voters the administration flagged.

In court last week, the Justice Department said that states were free to ignore the letters from the Homeland Security Department altogether.

Judge Boasberg wrote that it was not clear that just because a state had been threatened by the Trump administration, "officials there will capitulate to defendants' entreaties."

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