A federal judge in Washington held a rare Saturday hearing on whether to stop the government from handing states lists of people it says are noncitizens on the voter rolls. She made clear she has serious doubts about the effort just three days before the midterms.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan is weighing a request for a temporary restraining order from a pair of advocacy groups. The League of United Latin American Citizens along with the Electronic Privacy Information Center want the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security barred from sending more of the lists to election offices.

Chutkan told government lawyers that officials had made no secret of their drive to clear names from the rolls. She noted that past pushes of the same kind had wrongly caught up citizens. She also raised concern that the effort seemed aimed at states with large numbers of citizens of particular backgrounds.

What the government said

Elizabeth Shapiro, a lawyer for the Justice Department, said she did not know whether more letters were planned. Lists have already gone out to California and Washington state. Government lawyers argued that a letter by itself does not force any state to set ballots aside.

The groups suing say the lists are built from flawed federal data. They argue that naturalized citizens are the most likely to be flagged by mistake. They also say a warning from Washington this close to Election Day could frighten eligible voters away from the polls.

Chutkan said she would rule quickly given how little time is left before Tuesday.

A crowded week in court

The hearing came a day after another judge in Washington, James Boasberg, ordered the Justice Department to turn over its list of about 20,000 California names to an immigrant rights group. On Friday a judge in San Francisco blocked federal agencies from threatening local election workers. An appeals court also refused to make California pull roughly 20,000 ballots out of its count.

Federal officials say they are only trying to enforce the law against noncitizen voting, which is already a crime in federal races. Studies have found such cases to be very rare.

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3.