Justice Department expands where it will monitor on Election Day

The Justice Department will monitor elections in 86 jurisdictions nationwide on Tuesday, nearly doubling the number of areas this presidential election cycle and adding locations in key swing states set to decide the race.

Department officials have regularly been utilized to monitor compliance with federal voting rights laws on Election Day, with the goal of ensuring ballot access. U.S. government officials deployed monitors for 44 jurisdictions during the 2020 general election.

The hotly contested presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump has raised issues including voter intimidation, threats against election workers and Trump’s evidence-free claims of election fraud.

Local jurisdictions on the 2024 list range from critical areas such as Philadelphia and Allegheny counties in the swing state of Pennsylvania to remote locations like the Northwest Arctic Borough in Alaska. Jurisdictions in the seven major swing states appear on the monitoring list, including Fulton County, Ga., which was the subject of false election fraud claims from Trump after the 2020 presidential election.

Federal voting rights monitoring on Tuesday will also take place in the Atlanta-area jurisdictions of Cobb County, DeKalb County and Gwinnett County. Both Cobb and DeKalb counties did not have federal monitors in 2020, while Fulton and Gwinnett did.

Ryan Buchanan, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, said in a press release Friday that “free and fair elections are critical to the democracy of our nation.”

“Every eligible voter is entitled to cast a ballot without fear of intimidation, interference, or discrimination,” Buchanan said. “Our office will dedicate the necessary resources to ensure that this fundamental right is protected for all voters.”

The department has also added more jurisdictions in other swing states this presidential cycle, including in Arizona, which will now have monitoring in Apache, Pima and Yuma and Maricopa counties. There are also plans to monitor Nevada’s Clark County, which covers Las Vegas.

The push dovetails with broader efforts from the Justice Department to protect the integrity of the 2024 election, which includes prosecuting election-related threats and exposing foreign schemes to sway Americans’ perspectives about the election.

Federal election monitoring efforts have faced resistance from officials in some Republican-leaning states.

The Washington Post reported that Republican leaders in Missouri and Florida have said DOJ officials are likely to be rejected if they ask for access to voting locations for this year’s election.

Claire Woodall, the former executive director of the City of Milwaukee Election Commission, said during a media briefing Friday with other former election officials that the city in 2022 had an instance of Republican observers harassing Justice Department monitors out of the polling place and into the parking lot.

Federal monitors, she said, are “extremely useful” as auditors. Monitors will reach out to election administrators if they see a point of concern on the ground, whether it’s voter intimidation or a lack of bilingual poll workers at a certain site, she said.

“Unfortunately, they have been politicized” in recent years, Woodall said of the monitors.

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