DOJ Announces Expanded In-Person Poll Monitoring

The Department of Justice might be stepping up its in-person election monitoring efforts on Tuesday, in contrast with 2020’s presidential election. The company plans to deploy federal displays from the its Civil Rights Division, Office of Personnel Management, and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices to polling locations in 64 jurisdictions throughout 24 completely different states, in keeping with a Monday press statement.

“Since the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Civil Rights Division has regularly monitored elections in the field in jurisdictions around the country to protect the rights of voters,” the DOJ mentioned in its announcement. These displays are an ordinary a part of elections, although their numbers and placement differ from 12 months to 12 months.

During the 2020 nationwide election, the company positioned displays in 44 jurisdictions and 18 states. So, this 12 months’s midterms mark about a 50% improve in jurisdiction protection and a 35% improve within the variety of states monitored, in contrast with two years in the past, and are additionally greater than the 2018 midterms. However, this 12 months’s monitor numbers aren’t a report by any means. During the 2016 presidential election, 67 jurisdictions and 28 states had been monitored.

States slated for monitoring this 12 months, which weren’t in 2020, embody Alaska, Arkansas, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Rhode Island, and Utah. Illinois is the one state to have been completely faraway from the monitoring listing in that point. And many different states have ended up with extra jurisdictions on the listing now than earlier than, like Arizona which went from three to 5.

Unfounded conspiracy theories that allege the 2020 election was “stolen” from Trump have proliferated broadly for the previous two years. Election denier lies had been central to the January sixth revolt try. And broadly discounted claims of Democrat “voter fraud” have led to a growth in far-right actors stepping in as vigilante ballot watchers.

Last week, an Arizona decide issued a temporary restraining order towards such poll-watchers amid probably the most aggressive races within the nation, the place a number of the pro-Trump activists had been showing up with guns and intimidating would-be voters. In Maricopa County, the state’s most populous, precise election officers acquired not less than 140 threatening messages between July 11 and August 11 alone, in keeping with a report from Reuters.

In addition to the in-person displays, DOJ Civil Rights Division employees have a telephone hotline (800-253-3931) the place voters can file complaints. And complaints may also be submitted to the agency’s website. Note although that these portals are just for complaints associated to potential violations of the federal voting rights legislation—not experiences about potential fraud.