Court blocks DOJ non-citizen voting probe, raising fears of Trump-led election challenges

In July, President Donald Trump warned that the upcoming midterm elections faced a threat from voter fraud and demanded stricter safeguards. Following his remarks, the Department of Justice launched investigations in nine states, claiming thousands of non-citizens were registered to vote. Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin ruled the DOJ's data was defective and that the probes risked wrongly disenfranchising voters, ordering the investigations halted while an appeal proceeds.

Attorney General Todd Blanche refused to rule out future lawsuits challenging election certifications, invoking a "doomsday" scenario if fraud were found. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin had previously cited a figure of 250,000 non-citizens on voter rolls, a claim disputed by the states involved. The court's injunction could become a tool for Trump and his allies to cast doubt on midterm outcomes in tightly contested races.