Justice Department to send a record 1,000 monitors to midterm polling places

The Justice Department is preparing to deploy a record 1,000 federal monitors to polling places across the United States for the upcoming midterm elections, according to Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division. Dhillon made the announcement during an interview with Bloomberg.

The Civil Rights Division has consistently sent monitors to polling places to ensure compliance with the federal Voting Rights Act, which aims to prevent discrimination in voting and to protect against intimidation or disenfranchisement of voters based on race, gender, ethnicity, religion, disability or other protected classes. In the past, both DOJ attorneys and staff, as well as U.S. Attorney's Office personnel, have served as monitors, often supplemented by volunteers recruited and trained by the Office of Personnel Management.

During the last midterm election in 2022, the DOJ sent 289 monitors to polling places nationwide. The 2024 presidential election required an even larger effort, with 714 monitors sent to 27 states in 86 jurisdictions, predominantly consisting of DOJ attorneys and staff. However, the staffing of the Civil Rights Division has been severely impacted during the Trump administration, with over 70% of its career staff retiring or resigning due to changes in its mission under Dhillon's leadership. Despite recent recruitment efforts, the division remains understaffed.

The Justice Department has expressed its intention to solicit federal employees for volunteer poll-monitoring positions, targeting DOJ personnel, including those in U.S. Attorney's Offices. A full list of monitored locations is expected to be released after the conclusion of the primary elections. In recent weeks, the DOJ has already sent monitors to Miami-Dade County, Florida, and Laramie County, Wyoming, for primary elections.

The department's actions have been met with suspicion in some states, particularly in light of the Civil Rights Division's 31 lawsuits seeking unredacted voter data from states, which they argue is necessary to ensure the integrity of the electoral process. However, these lawsuits have been unsuccessful so far, with judges blocking the requests in 23 cases to date.

The Department of Homeland Security has also expressed interest in utilizing the voter information for criminal and immigration enforcement purposes. President Trump has dismissed the 2020 election loss as a stolen one, and criminal investigations related to the election results have been initiated by the FBI in Georgia and Arizona.

Recently, Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes requested public records to understand the rationale behind the DOJ's deployment of monitors in three counties for the primary election.