Judge Bars DOJ From Pressuring Washington State to Set Aside Ballots of Suspected Noncitizens

WASHINGTON -- A federal judge in Seattle on Thursday blocked the Justice Department from demanding that Washington state set aside ballots from more than 400 registered voters suspected of being noncitizens, delivering the Trump administration another court defeat in its pre-midterm push to intervene in state-run elections.

U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead, an appointee of President Biden, issued a 14-day temporary restraining order barring the DOJ and the Department of Homeland Security from demanding that Washington officials remove flagged voters from the rolls, refuse to issue them ballots, or segregate and withhold their votes from the count. The order also bars federal officials from threatening election workers with prosecution for refusing to comply, according to Democracy Docket, which reviewed the filing.

The case stems from an Oct. 26 letter. According to reporting by the Washington State Standard, two federal prosecutors, Pete Serrano and Neil Floyd, sent Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs a list of roughly 400 registered voters whom the DOJ suspected of being noncitizens who had voted in past elections, and urged that any ballots cast by those individuals not be counted until citizenship could be determined. That letter arrived eight days before Tuesday's midterm elections.

Hobbs rejected the demand. "If the DOJ has identified noncitizen voters on our voter roll, they should provide us with accurate and complete information so we can investigate according to state and federal law," Hobbs said in a statement Thursday evening, as quoted by the Washington State Standard.

Whitehead's order drew a sharp line. "For the next two weeks, while Washington's counties count and certify the ballots already cast, DOJ may not demand that election officials set aside a registered voter's ballot because the voter's name appears on a federal list and may not threaten those officials with prosecution for counting votes as state law requires," the judge wrote, according to the Washington State Standard.

The restraining order lasts two weeks. Washington counties must certify their results by Nov. 24, according to the Washington State Standard.

The Justice Department said it was not done. "A temporary restraining order is not a final ruling on the merits, and the Department will continue to defend its authority to work with states to ensure that voter rolls comply with federal law," department spokesperson Kiersten Pels said in an email Friday, as quoted by the Washington State Standard.

The ruling lands in a string of similar setbacks for the administration. The Washington State Standard noted the federal government previously tried and failed in court to obtain private data from Washington's voter rolls and to restrict mail-in voting in western states. The U.S. Supreme Court separately declined to back a comparable DOJ push in California, a decision cited by analysts as a precedent bearing on this case.

Plaintiffs in the Washington case are OneAmerica Votes, the Latino Community Fund of Washington State, and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, according to the Washington State Standard.

Whitehead's order does not bar the DOJ from prosecuting anyone who votes unlawfully, nor does it prohibit the department from asking Washington to set ballots aside through proper legal channels, the Standard reported.

The case now heads toward a broader merits hearing, where the administration will have to defend the underlying legal authority it claimed in the Oct. 26 letter -- a question the two-week clock on the restraining order will force courts to address quickly.

Sources cited:
- Democracy Docket (https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/federal-judge-blocks-trump-doj-from-interfering-with-washington-states-elections-ballot-counting/)
- Washington State Standard (https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2026/11/06/feds-cant-force-wa-to-set-aside-alleged-noncitizen-ballots-judge-rules/)
- Election Law Blog (https://electionlawblog.org/2026/federal-judge-orders-justice-department-to-stop-threatening-election-officials-in-washington-state/)