Judge Tanya Walton Pratt of the U.S. District Court in Indianapolis granted an injunction that stops a new state law that would have kicked thousands of voters off the rolls based on a database that cross checks names with registered voters in other states.
Pratt said in a ruling issued Friday that the harm to wrongly purged voters far outweighs any possible harm to Indiana election officials seeking to protect the integrity of the process.
Voters, Pratt said, "face the imminent and irrevocable consequence of disenfranchisement of thousands of Indiana voters, only months before a federal election."
The state, Pratt ruled, "would face only the prospect of waiting until after adjudication of the merits of Plaintiffs’ challenge to implement extremely prejudicial aspects of an election bill that was passed only recently."
A spokeswoman said Secretary of State Connie Lawson's office is consulting its lawyers to review options for a possible appeal.
