Justice Department to send 1,000 poll monitors to watch elections this fall

Aug. 18 (UPI) — The U.S. Department of Justice plans to send about 1,000 poll monitors to elections this fall, including some Tuesday in Florida and Wyoming primary races.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, who leads the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, told Bloomberg News that the number of poll monitors is “probably going to be a historic number for a Republican administration.”

“Election monitoring is an ongoing priority for this office,” Dhillon said in a press release. “Nondiscriminatory monitoring ensures all elections remain free, fair and accessible to all.”

On Tuesday, four attorneys for the Civil Rights Division went to Miami-Dade County, Fla., and two attorneys in Laramie County, Wyo., Dhillon said in the press release. The department has sent more than 75 monitors to five states and more than 200 polling locations this year.

In the Michigan primary on Aug. 4, the department sent monitors to four cities: Detroit, Hamtramck, Lansing and East Lansing, all cities that are heavily Democratic. Some were concerned that the monitors would interfere with voting, but Michigan officials said they were professional and didn’t cause issues, The Washington Post reported.

The department also sent monitors to Democratic areas in the Arizona and Minnesota primaries.

Dhillon said the department hasn’t yet decided where it will send the monitors this fall. She said they could include “the places where there may be language issues, the places where there may have been access of disability rights issues, places where there may be voter fraud issues,” The Post reported.