US judge blocks federal operations seeking to identify non-citizen voters
Homeland Security targets nine states in fraud investigations that critics say intimidate voters.
A United States federal judge has ordered the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to halt operations aimed at finding non-citizen voters in nine states ahead of the midterm elections.
The ruling by US District Court Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin said the investigations likely violate a provision of the Voting Rights Act that prohibits voter intimidation. She further said the DHS may have relied on flawed data in its investigations.
That leads to “an objectively reasonable fear of law enforcement entanglements that intimidates citizens from urging or aiding others in exercising their right to vote”, she wrote.
While there are recorded instances of fraud in every election cycle, such isolated cases remain exceedingly rare.