DOJ Deploys 1,000 Election Monitors Across All 50 States

The Justice Department will put roughly 1,000 monitors in all 50 states on Election Day, its largest election-monitoring effort in recent memory.

DOJ spokesperson Kiersten Pels told States Newsroom that "every monitor will merely observe and report any potential violations of federal law to the Department, which will be reviewed after Election Day." The department said it will not publish the full list of monitored locations until Nov. 3.

For comparison, the Biden administration sent monitors to 64 jurisdictions across 24 states for the 2022 midterms. Locations that have surfaced through local officials include King County, Washington; the Portland area in Oregon; Portland and Lewiston, Maine; Salt Lake County, Utah; and four Pennsylvania counties: Allegheny, Lehigh, Luzerne and Philadelphia.

Critics are already pushing back. Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon, a Republican, called DOJ personnel's conduct at that state's primary "very odd," and in early October the NAACP sued the department for records about the program. A federal judge, Sparkle Sooknanan, denied the group's request for an emergency order forcing the DOJ to produce those records immediately.

The case for the program is simple: federal voting law exists, and someone has to watch for violations. Observers who report what they see, with any follow-up reviewed after the polls close, are a far cry from the dark scenarios Democrats and their allies have been floating for weeks. The administration has also said no immigration agents or troops are planned for polling places.