This report follows “Washington Rejects DOJ Bid to Freeze Ballots” and reflects developments through November 3. It distinguishes the federal court’s temporary order, the statements of Washington officials, and allegations that have not been established in court.

The federal court order

On November 2, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan temporarily barred the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security from sending states lists of registered voters whom the administration says may not be citizens. The order also barred the agencies from asking election officials to segregate those voters’ ballots or withhold them from the count until citizenship is proved.

Reuters reported that the ruling followed requests by voting-rights and privacy organizations for temporary relief. Those groups argued that the administration’s release of the lists violated the Privacy Act. The federal government said its letters to California and Washington were part of an effort to enforce the ban on noncitizen voting, rather than a separate reviewable policy.

The order is temporary, not a final decision on the lawsuit or on any individual voter’s eligibility. It does not change the rule that only U.S. citizens may vote in Washington or federal elections. It limits the specified list-sharing and ballot-segregation requests while the case proceeds.

What Washington received

The DOJ asked Washington in late October to set aside ballots associated with more than 400 people it alleged were noncitizens. Federal officials said they had identified about 1,500 ballots cast by the people on their list in earlier elections. The DOJ has described its identifications as high confidence, but the public reporting cited here does not include the individualized evidence used for each allegation.

Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs responded on October 28 that the state’s initial review found U.S. citizens, duplicate entries, people who were not currently registered and people with inactive registrations among the names supplied by the Justice Department. He said the federal material lacked the voter IDs, addresses, sources and individualized evidence his office needed for prompt verification.

Hobbs said Washington would not stop processing a registered voter’s ballot without individualized proof of ineligibility. He invited the DOJ to provide that proof so election officials could take steps consistent with state and federal law. The Spokesman-Review reported that his office was still assessing the federal data and had not publicly said how many U.S. citizens appeared on the list.

Washington’s election law provides a process for voter-registration challenges. The state’s response did not say that every person on the DOJ list was eligible; it said the material supplied did not establish that each listed person was ineligible or receiving a ballot in the 2026 election.

Hobbs’s recent public statements

In an October 26 interview with FOX 13 Seattle, before the federal briefing, Hobbs said Washington had documented 15 instances of noncitizen voting between 1982 and 2025. He said his office would monitor the federal announcement and stated that Washington officials would work with federal partners on credible fraud concerns.

At an October 30 news conference, Hobbs criticized the timing and reliability of the federal submission. FOX 13 reported that he said the state’s initial review identified duplicates, inactive registrations and verified U.S. citizens. King County Elections Director Julie Wise, who appeared with Hobbs, said a registration is not the same as a counted ballot and described the citizenship attestations used in Washington’s voting process.

In the same October 26 interview, Hobbs urged voters to use a drop box or return ballots early because of possible Postal Service postmark delays. That advice is separate from the dispute over the DOJ list; it concerns the handling of mail ballots generally.

The Washington request followed a similar dispute in California, where the DOJ asked election officials to withhold ballots from more than 20,000 people it described as likely noncitizens. A federal judge in Los Angeles denied the DOJ’s emergency request to require that ballot segregation. Reuters reported that an appeals court later denied the department’s request for emergency relief pending appeal.

The November 2 order in Judge Chutkan’s case addresses the practice of sending the lists and asking states to segregate or withhold ballots. It is distinct from the California case, and it does not decide whether any specific person in California or Washington was eligible to vote.

What voters can do

For Tacoma and Pierce County voters, VoteWA provides official registration and ballot-status information. Pierce County Elections can answer local questions about ballots, signatures, addresses and voting procedures.

This is a developing legal and election-administration story. The federal government may appeal the temporary order, and Washington officials may receive additional information or take action under established state procedures. Network of Tacoma will update this report if either occurs.