DOJ Notifies Counties in at Least Seven States It Will Send Election Day Monitors

The Justice Department has begun notifying counties across the country that it will send federal monitors to observe voting on Election Day.

So far, jurisdictions in Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Texas and Washington have confirmed receiving notices, according to NPR, the Indiana Capital Chronicle and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office.

NPR confirmed notices to seven Texas counties, King County, Wash., Miami-Dade County, Fla., and Minnesota’s Hennepin and Ramsey counties. In Michigan, letters went to Detroit, East Lansing, Flint, Grand Rapids, Hamtramck, Lansing and Warren.

Harmeet Dhillon, who heads the department’s Civil Rights Division, has said DOJ plans to send 1,000 monitors nationwide, which she called “the largest monitoring effort” in department history, NPR reported.

That compares with 289 people sent for the 2022 midterms and 714 for the 2024 presidential election, a DOJ official told CBS News. A department spokesperson told NPR the full list of locations would be shared “closer to the election.”

What Monitors Can and Cannot Do

DOJ letters say monitors will “only observe and take notes” and “do not intrude or interfere in any way in the voting process,” Colorado Public Radio reported.

Monitors will dress in business casual, will not wear uniforms or pins, are barred from carrying firearms and may not talk to voters inside polling places, CBS Colorado reported, citing the department’s letter.

In Colorado, DOJ said it chose Adams County because it is covered by Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act, which requires Spanish-language election materials.

Adams is a Democratic stronghold in the toss-up 8th District, where Republican Rep. Gabe Evans faces Democrat Manny Rutinel, CPR reported.

A notice also went to Douglas County, but DOJ attorney Jake Bachand said that letter “was made in error, and we apologize.” Colorado’s secretary of state’s office has asked for each monitor’s name, title and planned locations.

Adams County Clerk Josh Zygielbaum, a Democrat, told NPR his “initial thought is that it’s politically motivated.” He also said his office’s procedures would not change regardless of who is watching.

In Indiana, monitors are headed to Marion and Lake counties. Marion County Clerk Kate Sweeney Bell said officials “were not told what criteria was used to make this determination,” WFYI reported.

A DOJ spokesperson told WFYI the department will be in all 50 states “doing the routine election monitoring the department has done for decades.” Rep. André Carson, D-Ind., called the Indiana selections “no coincidence.”

Michigan officials struck a calmer tone. “The presence of federal election monitors is an expected part of the process, as it has been for years,” Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a joint statement with Nessel.

Some states have pushed back before. Minnesota denied DOJ monitors close access to polling places during its August primary, NPR reported.

In 2024, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton went to court to block Biden-era DOJ monitors from polling and counting locations.

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