Judge temporarily blocks possible Iowa voter purge [View all]

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Fri Sep 14, 2012 8:20pm EDT

(Reuters) - An Iowa judge issued a temporary injunction on Friday blocking the state's plans to verify the citizenship status of voters before the November 6 election in the Midwestern swing state.

The injunction was a setback for Iowa's Republican Governor Terry Branstad, whose government had hoped to check on the citizenship of more than 3,500 people to purge state voter rolls of potential illegal immigrants.

Iowa District Court Judge Mary Pat Grunderson said the effort to verify the legal status of voters could not proceed while a lawsuit against the potential voter purge goes forward.

"The court concludes the harm that granting the temporary injunction may prevent outweighs the harm that may result from denying it," the judge wrote in her 12-page ruling.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/15/us-usa-iowa-voting-idUSBRE88E00120120915