DOJ election monitors alarm local chiefs before vote

DOJ election monitors are headed to polling places in every state for the midterm election, and the plan has left some of the local officials who run those elections uneasy. The Justice Department intends to send about one thousand officials to polling sites on Election Day, according to USA Today, but it has not yet released a full list of the counties they will visit. That gap, along with questions about who the monitors are and why certain counties were picked, is driving much of the friction.

Josh Zygielbaum, the elected clerk and recorder in Adams County, Colorado, oversees voting for roughly 554,000 residents near Denver. He told USA Today that his office had never faced a complaint, a charge, or an investigation, and he said the arrival of DOJ election monitors felt as if voters themselves were being scrutinized. Clerks in other counties who were told to expect monitors reported a similar pattern, noting that the places named so far tend to lean Democratic and have large Hispanic populations.

Justice Department spokeswoman Kiersten Pels said the department gives priority to jurisdictions required to provide language assistance, places with little prior observation data, and places under a consent decree tied to earlier election problems. She said the full list of counties will be released early next week. On Election Day, Pels said, the DOJ election monitors will be department personnel trained on state and local law, and their job will be to observe, document, and report on compliance with federal voting law. They are not authorized to intervene, she said, and they will not question voters about citizenship at the polls.

A familiar program, run differently

Federal election monitoring is not new, and in past cycles its purpose was usually to make sure people could vote. DOJ election monitors were typically civil rights specialists sent to places with a history of discrimination or access problems. In the 2022 midterms, the department sent monitors to dozens of jurisdictions across about two dozen states, and Zygielbaum said the attorneys who came to Adams County that year helped his office make Spanish language translations available. He described them as great partners.

This year, Zygielbaum said, he was told the DOJ election monitors headed to his polling sites are criminal prosecutors rather than civil rights specialists. That change sits against a broader federal push on voting. Over the summer, the Civil Rights Division sent letters to election officials in all states warning of legal action if they knowingly allowed noncitizens to vote or stay on voter rolls. The president has also offered a million dollar reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of people committing voter fraud, according to USA Today.

In Wyoming, Laramie County Clerk Debra Lee, a Republican, said federal observers who come to her county will wear county issued identification badges and must stay at least 100 feet from the polls if they wish to interview voters. She said her office is committed to following Wyoming law and protecting the right to vote privately, safely, and without disruption. State officials said no federal observer had monitored voting in Wyoming in at least four decades before observers appeared during the August primaries. Governor Mark Gordon, also a Republican, called that appearance irregular and a bit aggressive at the time and called for an investigation, saying observers had acted aggressively and asked to inspect voting machines.

Kentucky and Indiana push back on the details

In Kentucky, the department told officials it intends to send DOJ election monitors to Jefferson and Fayette counties, home to Louisville and Lexington, the state's largest cities and both Democratic strongholds. A letter reviewed by the Kentucky Lantern said monitoring is done the same way as in the past, with monitors observing and taking notes and introducing themselves to poll managers, and it said monitors are not supposed to speak to voters inside polling places. In Fayette County, officials said monitors will work in small groups checking accessibility, provisional ballot distribution, and required language assistance.

Jefferson County officials said about a dozen DOJ election monitors are expected in Louisville, and stressed that those monitors are department employees serving as civil election monitors rather than federal law enforcement officers. The clerk's office also told the department that routine federal monitoring inside polling locations is not authorized under Kentucky law without other applicable legal authority, while offering other ways for representatives to raise concerns and review public election information.

Marion County, Indiana, Clerk Kate Sweeney Bell said her office was given little to work with. She said officials were not told who or what prompted the county's selection or what criteria were used to make the determination. The NAACP has sued to challenge the DOJ election monitors plan, arguing in its filing that the department has twisted the program into a tool for pursuing baseless claims of widespread voter fraud and that the scale of the deployment, combined with the first time use of criminal prosecutors, could intimidate voters. Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read said he welcomes observers but added that it is not legal for them or anyone else to interfere with Oregon's elections, and that the state is prepared to make sure the department follows the law.

For all the argument, several officials said they will simply watch the DOJ election monitors closely on Election Day and hold them to state rules. Zygielbaum said elections in his county are run largely by neighbors working as election judges, and he wants the public to trust that work. He is on the ballot again this year, and he said a loss would simply be the will of the people. Losing an election, he said, does not by itself prove the other side cheated.

Sources: USA Today and the Kentucky Lantern reported the details of the monitoring plan and the responses from local officials.