The Justice Department announced Friday it will send monitors to polls across the U.S.on Election Day,including in Dallas County and seven others in Texas, to watch for compliance with federal voting rights laws.
The department regularly visits precincts during elections, but this year’s presence in 86 jurisdictions across 27 states will nearly double the number of cities and counties monitored during the 2020 presidential election.
Texas is scheduled to have the highest number of jurisdictions observed in any state, tied with Massachusetts, according to the list released by the Justice Department. Federal workers propose monitoring eight counties Tuesday, a jump from two in 2020 and three in 2022.
This year, officials will visit Atascosa, Bexar, Dallas, Frio, Harris, Hays, Palo Pinto and Waller counties, according to a news release.
On Sept. 30, dozens of state, local and federal Democrats in Texas wrote a letter to U.S. Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke asking federal officials to monitor the five most populous counties during early voting and Election Day, citing “the attacks on our right to vote.”
But in response to questions from The Dallas Morning News, Alicia Pierce, a spokesperson for the Texas Secretary of State, said in an email, “DOJ monitors are not authorized in Texas polling locations.”
She did not answer questions about whether federal monitors would be blocked from accessing precincts but said state election inspectors will be deployed “in various locations throughout the state.”
The Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibits racial discrimination in voting, allowed federal officials to observe polling places and sites where ballots are counted.
But the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2013 ruling that struck down provisions of the law made it so that the Justice Department needed a court order or cooperation from state and local officials to enter polling sites, according to reporting by The Washington Post.
During the 2022 midterms, Republican leaders in Missouri and Florida prohibited federal monitors from going inside polling places.
The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, which is coordinating the election monitoring effort, enforces federal law protecting the right to vote, ensuring people with disabilities have equal access to voting and prohibiting voter intimidation and voter suppression.
Instances of disruptions at polling places or complaints of violence or threats should be forwarded to the Justice Department after being reported first to local elections officials and law enforcement, according to the news release.
Civil Rights Division staff will be available to receive questions and complaints about possible violations of federal voting rights laws through its website at www.civilrights.justice.gov or by calling 800-253-3931.