DES MOINES, Iowa — The Justice Department confirmed Wednesday that it plans to send about 1,000 election monitors to polling places in all 50 states for the Nov. 3 midterm elections, and Iowa’s top election official said he expects monitors at a couple of locations in his state.
DOJ spokeswoman Kiersten Pels said the department “will be in all 50 states.” In an emailed statement, Pels said: “We will have around 1,000 monitors in counties throughout the United States, but we will not share the full list until Election Day.”
“Every monitor will merely observe and report any potential violations of federal law to the Department, which will be reviewed after Election Day.”
Pels characterized the deployment as routine and said it has occurred “for decades.” Monitors must meet legal and ethical requirements and cannot interfere with voting, she said. The department gives priority to places required to provide language assistance and to jurisdictions under consent decrees from earlier election cases, according to Pels.
Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate, asked about the plan at a press event Wednesday in Des Moines, offered no specifics on where monitors would go in Iowa, according to the Des Moines Register. “I believe there will be a couple locations in Iowa,” he said.
Pate said the monitors’ main jobs in Iowa will be checking that polling places are accessible to voters with disabilities and that voters who need a provisional ballot get the chance to cast one. They will not wear uniforms, he said, and they may not interfere with voters or poll workers.
He also warned against overstating what the deployment means. “This is what can cause disenfranchising of voters,” Pate said. “This kind of stuff goes out, and then people think Big Brother is trying to impact them and their voting opportunities.”
His Democratic opponent, Ryan Peterman, pressed for more detail in a news release after the event. “Secretary Pate owes Iowans answers,” Peterman said, asking where the monitors will be deployed and what Pate is doing to keep them from interfering with voters.
The planned deployment is more than double the last midterm cycle. Under President Joe Biden, the department sent 388 election monitors in 2022, PBS reported. This year’s goal is 1,000, including Justice Department lawyers.
Election officials in other states have already been told to expect monitors. In Michigan, the Civil Rights Division notified seven cities, including Detroit and Lansing, the Detroit Free Press reported. Monitors will also go to polling places in Indianapolis and to Lake County, Indiana, the Indy Star reported.
Some states are setting limits. In Kentucky, the Jefferson and Fayette county monitors — the two counties cover Louisville and Lexington — will have to stay 100 feet or more from a polling place entrance. State law requires it, election officials there said. Yates, the Jefferson County clerk, expects roughly a dozen monitors in Louisville.
In Wyoming, Gov. Mark Gordon, a Republican, complained that two monitors tried to interview voters and examine voting machines during the state’s Aug. 18 primaries, The New York Times reported. Monitors returning to Wyoming on Election Day must stay at least 100 feet outside polling places.
One question keeps coming up: ICE agents at the polls? “60 Minutes” asked Harmeet Dhillon this month. She runs the Civil Rights Division, the part of the department sending the monitors. “There is no plan to do that,” she said.
The legal backdrop, quickly: the NAACP is suing for the program’s records (emergency relief: denied; case: pending), and the department is 0-for-27 in voter-list suits against states. Backdrop noted. The monitors deploy Tuesday regardless.
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