The WatchlistWatch 18
This is a Watchlist entry. It is a developing story reported by credible outlets that hasn't reached a court ruling, official finding or documented harm yet. It says what to watch for. If that happens, it moves to The Record.
About 1,000 Justice Department monitors at the polls on Election Day, the most ever
Developing means: Reported by credible outlets, but no ruling, official finding or documented harm yet.
The Justice Department plans to send about 1,000 monitors to polling places for the Nov. 3 midterms, which its civil rights chief calls a historic number, and Attorney General Todd Blanche says they will go to every state.
What happened
The Civil Rights Division has sent lawyers and staff to watch polling places for decades, mainly to enforce federal voting rights laws; the department sent monitors to 22 states in the 2022 midterms and 27 in 2024, about 289 and 714 people according to Democracy Docket. Harmeet Dhillon, who heads the division, said in an Aug. 17 Bloomberg interview that the department would send at least 1,000 trained monitors, likely a historic number for a Republican administration, and that the training is the same past administrations used.
During the primaries the department deployed monitors in Florida, Wyoming, Michigan, Arizona and Minnesota, among other states. Hennepin County, Minnesota, refused to let them inside polling places and the department agreed to stay outside the 100-foot boundary state law sets, and Wyoming's Republican governor, Mark Gordon, asked for a state inquiry after two division lawyers questioned election workers in Laramie County, calling their conduct a bit aggressive.
The department has lost 23 of 31 lawsuits seeking states' unredacted voter rolls. Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee asked the department on Sept. 28 for the monitors' names, titles and training materials, and in early October the NAACP sued for records on the plan's legal authority, staffing, training and locations after the department missed a records-request deadline; it says monitors were sent to primaries without notice to local officials.
Democrats say they will send their own observers. The division has 353 authorized positions, so Democracy Docket says it is unclear where the department will find 1,000 people or how they will be vetted.
What to watch for
Whether monitors enter polling places over the objections of state or local officials, whether voters or election workers report intimidation and any court is asked to intervene, what the records lawsuit turns up about the plan's legal basis and who the monitors are, and whether the department deploys federal law enforcement alongside them.
Ordinary department monitors have no statutory right to enter a polling place; state law and local officials decide where they may stand. If Election Day passes without incidents or court action, this comes off the list.
The administration's side
Blanche said on Oct. 4 that the department has monitored elections since the 1960s, that the monitors will not focus on Republican or Democratic states, and that Democrats' warnings are fearmongering. Dhillon says monitoring is an ongoing priority of her office, that nondiscriminatory monitoring keeps elections free, fair and accessible, and that the department's actions match past practice; she calls the staff observers rather than monitors. The department disputed some of the Wyoming officials' accounts, including a claim that monitors sought to inspect voting machines.
Sources
Permanent link: https://unredactedrecord.com/e/w-dojmonitors/