A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to provide a list of states it targeted with demands that state and local officials change how they will administer the midterm election, including that they set aside specific ballots for extra scrutiny.
The order from Chief Judge James E. Boasberg in Federal District Court in Washington could provide new transparency into the Trump administration’s efforts to pressure local officials ahead of next week’s election.
It came in a lawsuit brought by a broad coalition of Democratic politicians and party organizations that is seeking a court order prohibiting the Trump administration from interfering in election administration.
The Justice Department has sent letters to California and Washington State asking them to impound ballots sent from voters the department said it had reason to believe were noncitizens. The states said that the lists provided by the government were riddled with errors and that the Constitution gives states — not the federal government — the power to administer elections.
Uzoma Nkem Nkwonta, a lawyer representing the Democratic coalition, said the groups were concerned that the Trump administration had potentially sent similar letters to more states and local officials than it had publicly revealed.
While judges have so far declined to order states to turn over voter data to the administration or to segregate ballots, officials in other states may have quietly complied, he argued.
At a hearing, Judge Boasberg said he planned to decide whether to block the Trump administration’s efforts by Nov. 3.
But he said that information he asked the administration to produce by noon on Friday would help him determine the extent of the federal government’s efforts and whether he had reason to intervene.
Judge Boasberg asked the Justice Department to produce any communication with state or local election officials that directed them to remove registered voters from state rolls, to refuse to issue ballots to specific registered voters, or to set aside “or otherwise not count and tabulate” votes cast by specific individuals.
He told Christian Dibblee, a Justice Department lawyer, that the Trump administration could short circuit the inquiry at any time by promising the government would not order any additional states to change their ballot processing in the coming days.
“You can moot all of this by saying, ‘We’re not intending to do this in the next five days before the election,’” Judge Boasberg said. “But if you don’t, then I’ll issue an opinion by Monday.”
Mr. Dibblee told Judge Boasberg that, in the federal government’s view, states were generally free to ignore letters that had come from the Justice or Homeland Security Departments. The assertion prompted surprise from the judge.
“We stand by the assertion that these letters do not require states to do anything,” Mr. Dibblee said. “The states have their own independent agency on how they are going to respond to those to these letters.”
“Isn’t the language in these letters a little stronger than that?” Judge Boasberg said. “Are you saying they’re more like a suggestion or just kind of a notice of ‘just wanted to let you know, you might want to be aware of this?’” he asked.
Mr. Dibblee said that receiving a letter “does not imply that the recipient is, ipso facto, violating a law” and that the Trump administration had gone to court in cases such as California to let a federal judge “make that determination.”
A letter sent last week to election officials across the state said they would “risk significant federal scrutiny” if they failed to comply with the Justice Department demands. The New York Times reported on Thursday that the government had also issued subpoenas to local election officials, asking them to appear before federal grand juries next week to provide evidence about the state’s procedures for screening noncitizen voters.
In the letters sent to states thus far, the Trump administration has raised dubious claims about thousands of “likely noncitizens” being registered to vote, with accompanying demands that state officials set aside ballots from anyone flagged by the government. When state officials have tried to verify the claims using data provided by the federal government, they have repeatedly found inconsistencies and lawful citizens being falsely implicated.
The coalition had argued that the letters and related efforts amounted to intimidation, and could lead to anxious officials agreeing to disenfranchise lawful voters.
Even so, Mr. Dibblee insisted that the Trump administration was not forcing state and local officials — even any who may have already accepted its demands — to disqualify voters. Even if states comply, he said, “each state is going to have its own independent agency for how to go about confirming the citizenship of these ballots.”
