A federal judge in California has ordered the Trump administration to temporarily halt investigations aimed at identifying noncitizens registered to vote in nine states. The ban is in effect until polls close on November 3, but the ruling’s implementation has been delayed until Friday to give the administration time to appeal. It applies to California, Connecticut, Georgia, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin.
Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín concluded that the review relies on large volumes of unreliable data, and that errors and agents’ visits to people have raised concerns and hindered citizens from taking part in campaign events and serving as poll workers. According to court documents, investigators were instructed to spend no more than 12 minutes reviewing the files of people flagged on voter lists; those people included naturalized citizens, whose records were checked to determine whether they had voted before becoming citizens. The judge stressed that the investigation must not target citizens, be carried out by armed agents or intimidate those encouraging people to vote.
The lawsuit was filed by the California Nurses Association and National Nurses United, the Voto Latino Foundation, and officials from San Francisco and Santa Clara County. The Department of Homeland Security said it intends to identify noncitizens who vote, but does not plan to investigate people it considers U.S. citizens. The investigation, called the “Unlawful Voting Initiative,” came to public attention after Democratic senators Chuck Schumer and Alex Padilla released a whistleblower’s report. The judge also noted that federal authorities had sought access to detailed state voter lists and had tried to use commercial versions of the data, which she deemed unreliable.
Based on: Federal judge orders Trump administration to halt noncitizen voting investigation in 9 states