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What to know about Justice Department election monitors
The Justice Department is deploying monitors amid concerns about neutrality and potential voter suppression in key off-year elections, with 27 states monitored during the 2024 presidential election.
- On Tuesday, the Justice Department is dispatching federal election monitors to polling locations in New Jersey and California for off-year elections to observe compliance with federal voting-rights laws.
- Critics say the choice of targets this year raises fresh concerns about motive, amplifying worries that the department promotes former President Donald Trump's agenda and used `ballot security` in its last-month release.
- Personnel choices are notable: the DOJ assigned Michael Gates, a high-ranking political appointee and voter-ID advocate, as one of two monitors in Orange County, California, while monitors typically observe outside and only take notes.
- California Governor Gavin Newsom accused the Justice Department of aiming to suppress votes, while California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the state would send observers to monitor DOJ attorneys, and Orange County registrar Bob Page said `If they want to come, it's fine`.
- While deployments have expanded, experts say federal election monitors rarely caused nationwide disruptions, with historical examples including an FBI probe in Santa Ana, California , and reports from 1996 and 2008.
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Dems, voting rights activists concerned over federal Election Day monitors
Ahead of elections across the country on Tuesday, some are voicing concerns over federal election observers being deployed from the Department of Justice (DOJ). Concern over workers from one political party or the other is nothing new. What’s an election monitor? “Usually, election monitors are independent individuals or from independent organizations who spend time in vote centers or polling places observing the operations of the vote center or…
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Total News Sources25
Leaning Left1Leaning Right0Center21Last UpdatedBias Distribution95% Center
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