Trump Secures Appeals Court Victory Over Election Ballot Demands and Poll Worker Threats
The 9th Circuit Appeals Court lifted blocks allowing the Trump administration to pressure election officials regarding suspected noncitizen ballots on Electi...
POLICY WIRE — Washington, D.C. — A federal appeals court overturned a ruling on Tuesday that had prevented the Trump administration from issuing threats to state and local election workers.
The decision clears the path for the administration to resume its efforts to pressure officials to set aside ballots that it claims may be cast by non-citizen residents.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals voted to rescind a previous injunction that had halted the government’s attempts to coerce workers into rejecting specific votes suspected of being from noncitizens.
This legal shift follows a chaotic series of conflicting orders on the eve of Election Day, involving Department of Justice letters sent to various jurisdictions demanding specific ballot handling procedures.
The court’s move effectively ended a prior order that had protected election officials from potential criminal prosecution if they failed to comply with these federal directives.
Earlier, a federal judge had blocked the Trump administration from using criminal charges as leverage against poll workers processing ballots, a move intended to stop efforts to invalidate votes before the election.
In a related development, the Supreme Court ruled against an attempt by Trump to compel the state of California to set aside specific ballots.
Reporting by Policy-Wire (PW)
