Federal Judge Bars DOJ From Pressuring Washington State Election Officials Over Noncitizen Ballot List

SEATTLE, A federal judge in Seattle on Thursday blocked the Trump administration from pressuring Washington state election officials to quarantine ballots belonging to voters the Justice Department has accused of being noncitizens, handing the administration another court defeat in a week of escalating federal-state confrontations.

U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead, appointed by President Joe Biden, issued the temporary restraining order after the state refused to comply with demands from two federal prosecutors. According to reporting by the Washington State Standard, federal prosecutors Charles Neil Floyd and Pete Serrano sent Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs a list of roughly 405 voters they suspected of being noncitizens on Oct. 26, just over a week before Election Day. Floyd and Serrano pushed the state not to count those ballots, and said the preliminary list was just the "tip of the iceberg," according to the Standard.

Hobbs, a Democrat, refused. He said in a statement Thursday that eligible voters should not be disenfranchised based on unsupported allegations, and that the state lacked the means to independently confirm noncitizen status.

Whitehead sided with the state. In his order, quoted by the Spokesman-Review, the judge wrote that for the next two weeks election officials could not be forced to set aside ballots solely because a voter's name appeared on a federal list, and could not be threatened with prosecution for counting votes as state law requires. The judge added: "Voters who followed the rules should not lose their votes to a list that even its authors admit may include citizens."

The decision lasts two weeks. Washington counties are required to certify results by Nov. 24, according to the Spokesman-Review, and a court hearing on a longer injunction is set for Nov. 18.

Plaintiffs in the case are OneAmerica Votes, the Latino Community Fund of Washington State, and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, according to the Lewis-McChord Daily Record.

Justice Department spokeswoman Kiersten Pels said in a statement Friday, as reported by multiple outlets, that the department was reviewing the order and evaluating next steps. "A temporary restraining order is not a final ruling on the merits," Pels said.

The ruling follows a parallel defeat in California, where federal courts rejected the administration's attempt to force state officials to segregate ballots belonging to suspected noncitizens, according to Democracy Docket. The Washington State Standard noted the administration has previously tried and failed in court to obtain private voter roll data from Washington and to restrict mail-in voting in western states.

The Penn State suit, filed Thursday by the Justice Department in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, reflected a separate but concurrent federal push against state institutions. The 14-page complaint, the department's 27th challenging in-state tuition policies for undocumented students, according to CBS Pittsburgh, accused Penn State of violating federal law by offering in-state tuition rates to undocumented students while charging higher out-of-state rates to U.S. citizens from outside Pennsylvania.

For the 2025-2026 academic year, Penn State listed in-state tuition at just over $20,000 and out-of-state tuition at nearly $43,000, according to Yahoo News. The complaint names the university and its Board of Trustees. Penn State said in a statement reviewed by Onward State that it was "aware of the complaint and is reviewing it."

Stanley Woodward, a top Justice Department official, said in a news release that "Congress long ago made clear that states, through their public universities, cannot give reduced tuition to illegal aliens not available to all Americans."

Pennsylvania never passed a statewide in-state tuition policy for undocumented students, according to PublicSource, meaning Penn State's policy is the university's own. A ruling against Penn State would move qualifying undocumented students to the out-of-state rate, according to the College Investor.

Together, the two actions in Washington and Pennsylvania illustrate the breadth of the administration's posture toward state institutions in the final days of a bruising midterm cycle, one the Associated Press reported resulted in significant Democratic gains nationally.

Sources cited:
- Washington State Standard (https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2026/11/06/feds-cant-force-wa-to-set-aside-alleged-noncitizen-ballots-judge-rules/)
- Spokesman-Review (https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2026/nov/06/feds-cant-force-wa-to-set-aside-alleged-noncitizen/)
- Democracy Docket (https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/federal-judge-blocks-trump-doj-from-interfering-with-washington-states-elections-ballot-counting/)
- Lewis-McChord Daily Record (https://www.dailyrecordnews.com/election/feds-can-t-force-wa-to-set-aside-alleged-noncitizen-ballots-judge-rules/article_bc3d5e29-9fc7-41bb-a444-cd67881fbd84.html)
- CBS Pittsburgh / AP (https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/trump-administration-sues-penn-state/)
- Onward State (https://onwardstate.com/2026/11/05/department-of-justice-files-lawsuit-against-penn-state-alleging-favorable-tuition-rates-for-undocumented-students/)
- Yahoo News / AP (https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/doj-sues-penn-state-over-204945052.html)
- The College Investor (https://thecollegeinvestor.com/91747/doj-sues-penn-state-over-in-state-tuition-for-undocumented-students/)