The Justice Department announced Friday it will deploy election monitors to 86 jurisdictions across 27 states on Tuesday, marking the highest level of monitoring in two decades as concerns grow over partisan interference and voter suppression.
The move comes as officials in certain Republican-led states have warned they may bar federal monitors from polling sites on Election Day, alleging the oversight is partisan. Despite these claims, both Democratic and Republican administrations have long assigned monitors to watch for potential voting rights violations.
This year’s deployment represents a 49% increase from 2020, equaling the total from 2004. That year’s monitoring followed the Supreme Court’s involvement in the disputed 2000 election between George W. Bush and Al Gore.
All seven battleground states are included in the list, with monitors set to visit six counties in Michigan, five in Georgia, four in Wisconsin and Arizona, three in Pennsylvania and North Carolina, and one in Nevada. Additional red and blue states, including California, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Ohio, and Virginia, will also have monitors. Texas and Massachusetts lead the list with eight jurisdictions each.
In recent years, GOP leaders in Missouri and Florida have barred federal monitors from voting sites, and this stance reportedly remains unchanged. Officials in other states, such as Texas, have indicated that federal monitors may face similar restrictions.
According to former federal officials, monitors aim to remain unobtrusive, addressing potential election law issues with local officials and reporting broader observations to U.S. attorneys and the Justice Department’s civil rights division.
Since the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Justice Department has sent officials to polling locations “to ensure fair access to voting for vulnerable groups.”
The selection of monitoring locations depends on factors such as requests from local officials, federal court orders, and areas experiencing rapid demographic changes. Legal experts note that the federal government’s ability to intervene was reduced in 2013, when the Supreme Court struck down key provisions of the Voting Rights Act, ending the “preclearance” requirement for states with histories of voter discrimination. This ruling meant the Justice Department now needs court orders or explicit state and local cooperation to monitor polling sites, leading to a notable reduction in federal monitoring in recent elections.
