DOJ Deploys 1,000 Staff to Watch 2026 Midterms
The Justice Department will send its largest team of election observers to all 50 states for next week's vote, a move that has prompted pushback from several state officials.
By Joao Menon ·
The U.S. Department of Justice is preparing to dispatch approximately 1,000 employees to polling places nationwide for the midterm elections next week. This deployment represents the department's largest monitoring effort in its history.
The plan marks a shift from previous years when observers were limited to states with a documented history of discrimination. According to a spokesperson, monitors will be present in all 50 states. The full list of specific counties will not be released until Election Day, though early notifications have gone to four counties in Pennsylvania, seven cities in Michigan, and seven counties in Texas.
These observers are primarily attorneys from the Civil Rights Division. However, the department may recruit other staff members to meet the 1,000-person target. The Campaign Legal Center has raised concerns that personnel outside the Civil Rights Division may lack specific training on federal civil rights laws, potentially leading to inadvertent intimidation of voters or election officials.
Federal law restricts these monitors to observing and documenting compliance with statutes such as the Voting Rights Act and the Help America Vote Act. They are prohibited from engaging in political activity or interfering with the voting process. Justice Department attorney James Catania wrote in a letter to Pennsylvania that the monitors only take notes and follow local rules. Despite this, several states have restricted physical access. Colorado, Indiana, and Wyoming have declared they will not allow DOJ monitors within a certain distance of polling places unless local officials grant permission.
State officials are scrutinizing the deployment closely this year. Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt noted on Tuesday that DOJ monitors do not have greater legal access to polling places than any other member of the public. He encouraged them to coordinate with county offices to prevent disruptions. In the Wyoming primary earlier this year, the governor described the monitors' behavior as aggressive, and the state attorney general reminded officials that monitors can be removed if they are not technically authorized by law.
The Justice Department is not the only entity sending observers. Voting rights groups including the ACLU and Common Cause are deploying their own teams. Additionally, Senate Democrats have sent more than 100 staffers to monitor elections in nine states. Senator Alex Padilla of California stated in a press release that Congress would be watching to ensure the administration does not take over state-run voting processes.
Source: Bucks County Beacon
