What to know about Justice Department election monitors

By Hannah Rabinowitz, Fredreka Schouten, CNN

(CNN) — The Justice Department is dispatching federal monitors to polling locations in New Jersey and California, two Democratic states with crucial off-year elections on Tuesday.

The announcement put the decadeslong federal monitoring practice under new scrutiny, as some Democrats and voting rights activists worry that this year’s monitors could be used to undermine the voting process or as a precursor to sow doubts about the election.

Election monitors, who are Justice Department employees often highly trained in voting laws, have been dispatched by both Republican and Democratic administrations, usually in coordination with local officials, to sit at polling locations and watch for instances where federal voting rights laws may have been violated.

But this year is different, some experts say, in part because the election monitors are being deployed after requests from local Republican parties. Those requests featured complaints of improper handling of ballots and other purported election irregularities as opposed to potential breaches of the Voting Rights Act.

DOJ officials insist that monitors are being sent out in normal order.

Who, and what, are federal election monitors?

Federal election monitors are lawyers who work for the Justice Department, typically either in its Civil Rights Division or in local US attorneys’ offices. They are not law enforcement officers or federal agents.

The monitors are tasked with making sure that federal voting rights laws are being followed, including the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits intimidation and threats against those who are casting ballots or counting votes, and the Americans with Disabilities Act, which mandates that election officials ensure people with disabilities have the full and equal opportunity to vote.

While they may sound imposing, federal monitors are not there to enforce laws. Monitors are allowed only to observe and take notes. They can’t talk to voters or poll workers, don’t have access to voting machines or ballots and are not involved in tallying votes.

The monitors typically remain outside polling places and enter only with permission from local election officials.

“You’re not to become part of the story. You’re not even supposed to fix problems,” David Becker, a former Department of Justice voting rights attorney who now runs the Center for Election Innovation & Research, told CNN. “You’re just supposed to take notes.”

Voters may not even be aware that federal monitors are present, Becker said, noting that political parties and individual campaigns often send their own monitors as well.

During the 2024 presidential election, monitors were sent to 27 states. For the 2022 midterms, the DOJ monitors were in 24 states. And in 2020, during President Donald Trump’s first term, the department sent monitors to 18 states.

Why are people concerned this year?

While the dispatching of federal election monitors is routine, their targets this year have amplified concerns from critics who say the Justice Department is using federal law to promote Trump’s personal agenda.

Becker, who was a federal monitor during several elections, told CNN it is highly unusual for the Justice Department to monitor polling places for “ballot security,” a description the department gave in a press release last month, as the DOJ typically watches for compliance with the Voting Rights Act.

Compounding concerns is that both states have high-profile races — New Jersey is home to a race for governor, while voters in California are deciding whether to redraw congressional maps to create five Democratic-friendly seats.

California’s redistricting effort is part of a nationwide scramble by political parties to gain the upper hand in next year’s midterm elections for the US House. Trump instigated the redistricting battle by pushing Republicans in Texas to draw five additional seats to benefit Republicans in 2026.

After it was announced that monitors would be sent to California, Gov. Gavin Newsom claimed the Justice Department’s move was aimed at suppressing votes in the state. Earlier last month, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the state would deploy its own observers to monitor the attorneys dispatched by the Justice Department.

“I don’t need evidence of irregularities. I simply need a basis to believe that it would be helpful for the DOJ to be there, and that’s it,” Harmeet Dhillon, who runs the department’s Civil Rights Division, told CNN’s Elex Michaelson. “We are not there to interfere. We are there to observe. We are there to document.”

But the department has so far taken at least one highly unusual move: sending Dhillon’s deputy, Michael Gates, a high-ranking political appointee, to be one of two monitors in Orange County, California.

Gates is the former city attorney of Huntington Beach, California, and has been a vigorous proponent of voter identification laws. He also has been among the Justice Department officials seeking voter roll data from individual states — a move that has caused alarm among some state election chiefs who argue it amounts to federal overreach in elections.

“If they want to come, it’s fine,” Bob Page, Orange County’s registrar of voters, told CNN. “Everything we do is transparent.”

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