DOJ plans 1,000 election monitors in all 50 states for Election Day

The U.S. Justice Department plans to station about 1,000 monitors at polling places across the country on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3, and a federal court case now defines who may serve and what they may do.

Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, said on Aug. 17 on Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power” that the department planned to deploy about 1,000 monitors in November, Democracy Docket reported. Dhillon said the department was weighing places with possible language or disability-access problems and places where it believes voter fraud may occur. The department had not released a final list of jurisdictions at that time.

On Newsmax, Dhillon said: “We are going to have the largest number of monitors and observers at the polls on Election Day this year in American history,” according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. The Inquirer reported that the department plans to place monitors in all 50 states.

What the Justice Department told the court

The department said late Wednesday, Oct. 28, in a court filing in a case brought by the NAACP that no FBI or ICE employees will serve as monitors, Reuters reported. Employees of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the ATF and the DEA will serve.

According to the filing, monitors will mainly observe polling places and take notes, and they will be barred from carrying firearms. The department wrote that “election monitors will not be acting as law enforcement personnel while monitoring.” It also said monitors have been trained not to interfere with voting and to follow state and local rules, consistent with past practice.

The NAACP sued to bar prosecutors and other law enforcement personnel from serving as monitors. The group argues the administration’s plans amount to “voter intimidation,” Reuters reported.

Pennsylvania’s four counties

In Pennsylvania, the department plans to send monitors to Philadelphia, Allegheny, Luzerne and Lehigh counties, the Inquirer reported. James T. Catania, a trial lawyer in the Civil Rights Division who joined the department in May, wrote to Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt last week and described himself as the “regional coordinator” overseeing monitors in the state.

The Inquirer reported that Catania sent similar letters to officials in Michigan and Ohio, and that at least five other Justice Department lawyers sent similar letters to officials in Georgia, Indiana, Maine, Colorado and Washington. His letter said he would hold online calls with each jurisdiction to explain the monitors’ role in enforcing federal voting laws. The department declined to make Catania available for an interview, and a spokesperson said coordinators will be based in Washington, D.C., on Election Day.

The spokesperson said: “All of this is in keeping with prior election monitoring practice at the DOJ.”

Seth Bluestein, a Philadelphia city commissioner, told the Inquirer: “It is my expectation that anybody who is in Philadelphia on Election Day will follow all applicable state and federal laws.” Bluestein said that when monitors came to Philadelphia for the 2022 midterms under President Joe Biden, their main focus was making sure polling places had materials in Spanish and Chinese. He said he expects to speak with Catania before Election Day. The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania said monitors were used in the same counties under the Biden administration without issue, according to the Inquirer.

Who the monitors will be

Democracy Docket reported in August that the Civil Rights Division is far smaller than 1,000 people, and that the department could draw personnel from U.S. attorneys’ offices and other components. Monitors generally observe polling place procedures and assess compliance with federal voting laws. They do not administer elections, determine voter eligibility or direct local officials, the outlet reported.

The Reuters report said the administration has taken an increasingly aggressive approach to election oversight, including pressing states for voter-registration data, and argues that stricter measures are needed to ensure public confidence in the vote. It also reported that some officials told Reuters earlier in October that they are preparing for potential federal interference in the midterms.

The Reuters report does not state how many monitors will come from each agency.