A federal judge in San Francisco stepped in Friday night to shield local election officials from a federal pressure campaign just four days before Americans finish voting in the midterms.

U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson granted a temporary restraining order that covers election offices in every state. Until the order expires, the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security may not threaten election workers with criminal charges or try to intimidate them into changing how they handle ballots.

The order also forbids both agencies from telling officials to pull names off voter rolls, deny ballots to particular voters, stop processing ballots or separate out ballots the federal government has flagged as suspect.

Federal officials have said they are trying to stop noncitizens from voting. Thompson wrote that the government's moves were likely to disrupt how elections are run and to keep eligible citizens from having their votes count. She added that with Election Day only a few days off, the public interest weighs heavily toward letting election workers do their jobs.

A second loss in one day

The ruling capped a rough Friday for the administration. Hours earlier a federal appeals panel turned down its bid to make California set aside roughly 20,000 ballots it says may have been mailed to people who are not citizens.

The 9th Circuit split 2-1. Judge Mark J. Bennett, named to the bench by Donald Trump. He was joined by Judge Gabriel P. Sanchez, a Joe Biden pick. Together they agreed with a lower court that there was no workable way to pull out individual ballots without risking serious harm to the whole count. A district judge had already refused the request on Wednesday.

California officials say the federal list is badly flawed and likely includes many citizens. Millions of Californians have voted and hundreds of thousands of ballots have been processed already. Once a ballot is processed it cannot be traced back to the person who cast it.

The pressure on local offices

The fight has put county clerks in an uncomfortable spot. Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, warned officials that counting a noncitizen's ballot could expose them to legal trouble. Grand jury subpoenas sent to California election officials call for testimony on Nov. 4, the day after the election.

The Justice Department says enforcing the ban on noncitizen voting is simply part of its job. Federal law already makes it a crime for noncitizens to vote in federal races. The government can still challenge Thompson's order in a higher court.

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3.