Justice Department to send about 1,000 election monitors to all 50 states for midterms

The U.S. Department of Justice plans to place election monitors in every state for the Nov. 3 midterm elections, with about 1,000 monitors taking part, a department spokesperson told States Newsroom, according to Maryland Matters.

The department will not release the full list of monitored locations until Election Day, spokesperson Kiersten Pels said, Maryland Matters reported. "Every monitor will merely observe and report any potential violations of federal law to the Department, which will be reviewed after Election Day," Pels said in a statement.

Federal monitoring of elections has gone on for decades. Maryland Matters reported that during the Biden administration, the department sent monitors to 64 jurisdictions in 24 states for the 2022 midterms. Todd Eberly, a politics professor at St. Mary's College of Maryland, told WBAL-TV that the number of monitors had been around 350 in the last midterm.

The expanded effort has drawn concern from Democrats and voting rights groups, along with some Republicans, according to Maryland Matters. The outlet noted that the department has sued dozens of states seeking voter lists and has lost 27 of those cases. The NAACP has sued for records about the monitoring program; a federal judge denied its request for an emergency order, and the case remains pending, Maryland Matters reported.

Some election experts told Maryland Matters that 1,000 monitors would be too few to affect voting broadly, noting the 2024 election involved more than 95,000 polling places.

As the department notifies counties, state and local officials have begun naming where monitors will appear. According to Maryland Matters, they include King County, Washington; the Portland, Oregon, area; Salt Lake County, Utah; and Portland and Lewiston, Maine. Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said her office "will monitor the monitors very carefully to ensure that they don't cross any lines," the outlet reported.

CBS Philadelphia reported that a letter to Pennsylvania officials indicates monitors will go to four counties, including Philadelphia. WBAL-TV reported that Maryland's elections board was told monitors will be at some polling places in Prince George's County. Maryland Elections Administrator Jared DeMarinis told the station that monitors may only observe and take notes and cannot interfere with voting.

In Washington state, KOMO reported that King, Pierce, Thurston, Clark and Snohomish counties have separately accepted the governor's offer of National Guard members to watch ballot drop boxes. Officials told KOMO the Guard members will be unarmed and in plain clothes and will not handle ballots or deal with voters. The step follows past incidents, including a drop box fire in Vancouver, Washington, in 2024, KOMO reported. Neil Floyd, acting U.S. attorney for western Washington, told KOMO that federal monitors will not check individual voter eligibility.

Compiled by True News from reporting by KOMO, Maryland Matters, CBS Philadelphia and WBAL-TV. Each outlet's original story is linked below.

Originally published by True News: https://truenews.bagleyenterprises.net/stories/525