The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) plans to send about 1,000 election monitors and observers to selected jurisdictions across all 50 states on Nov. 3, its broadest effort yet.
The department described the planned operation as both the largest in its history and its first to reach jurisdictions in every state. The Civil Rights Division will coordinate personnel from its own ranks, other DOJ components and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, along with federal observers from the Office of Personnel Management.
The DOJ says the teams will check federal voting-law compliance, including the Help America Vote Act and National Voter Registration Act, as well as the Voting Rights Act. The department assigns Americans with Disabilities Act enforcement to its Disability Rights Section; its Criminal Section enforces laws against specified forms of voter intimidation and suppression.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said the division was pursuing election transparency in an “assertive and nondiscriminatory manner.” The DOJ list names jurisdictions in each state but does not specify coverage at individual polling locations. The department places the start of its election-monitoring work in 1965, the year Congress enacted the Voting Rights Act.
Reuters reported that Minnesota sent about 40 state employees, working in pairs, to observe DOJ lawyers in two counties during its August primary. Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon told Reuters his office was likely to coordinate with the state attorney general’s office to shadow federal monitors in November. Reuters also reported that California had begun a similar program.
EconoTimes previously covered county notices sent ahead of the Nov. 3 vote. The DOJ deployment is scheduled for Election Day, Nov. 3.
