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The U.S. Department of Justice is planning to send around 1,000 election monitors to observe next week’s midterm elections — the department’s largest election monitoring effort ever.
The news may be off-putting to some voters in light of President Donald Trump’s efforts to interfere with the administration of the 2026 elections. But Justice Department monitors aren’t anything new, and there are laws that govern their behavior at the polls.
Here’s what you need to know.
What does a Department of Justice monitor do?
Election monitors visit polling places on Election Day and ensure that everyone is complying with federal election laws, such as the Voting Rights Act, National Voter Registration Act, and Help America Vote Act.
Monitors are supposed to observe and document any potential violations they see, but they are barred by federal law from engaging in any political activity, such as promoting a candidate. State and federal law also bars them from intimidating voters.
In a letter sent to Pennsylvania informing the state of monitors’ impending visit, the Justice Department said just that.
“Our monitors only observe and take notes,” Justice Department attorney James Catania wrote. “They do not intrude or interfere in any way in the voting process. … Monitors follow all rules of the state and jurisdiction.”
Who are the election monitors?
The monitors are Justice Department employees — usually attorneys from the department’s Civil Rights Division. However, in order to reach 1,000 monitors, the department may need to recruit other types of employees. During the Arizona primary earlier this year, six criminal prosecutors and an FBI employee served as monitors.
The Campaign Legal Center has raised concerns that “attorneys from outside the department’s Civil Rights Division may lack knowledge of federal civil rights laws and training on how to engage in election monitoring, raising the possibility that these monitors may inadvertently intimidate voters or election officials.”
The center created a guide to laws and standards monitors should follow. You can find that here.
Where will election monitors be?
Historically, election monitors have only visited jurisdictions with a history of discrimination in a limited number of states. However, this year, the Justice Department says that monitors will be sent to all 50 states.
The full list of counties that will receive monitors is unknown, but the department has started to notify them. The list includes four counties in Pennsylvania, seven cities in Michigan, and seven counties in Texas.
A spokesperson for the department said the full list would be released on Election Day.
Justice Department monitors may enter polling places only with the permission of local election officials; otherwise, they must observe the proceedings from outside. Multiple states, including Colorado, Indiana, and Wyoming, have said they will not allow Justice Department monitors within a certain distance of polling places.
“DOJ monitors are subject to state and local laws and rules pertaining to polling locations,” Kiersten Pels, a spokesperson for the Justice Department, said in an email Friday. “DOJ trains all its monitors on the state and local laws applicable to the monitors’ assigned jurisdictions.”
Is this unusual?
Election monitors are nothing new. Both Democratic and Republican administrations have sent them to polling places around the country for decades.
But state officials are keeping in mind the concerns about the monitors this year, given the Trump administration’s aggressive push on election issues.
“DOJ monitors are not legally entitled to any greater access to polling places than any member of the public,” Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt said Tuesday. “We encourage them to coordinate with county election offices to ensure that their activities on Election Day do not disrupt the voting process in any way.”
Election monitoring typically goes off without any issues or attention paid to it. Justice Department monitors observed primary elections in Arizona, Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Virginia earlier this year without causing any problems.
In the Wyoming primary election, though, state officials did raise concerns about their behavior, with the governor saying they were a bit “aggressive.” The state’s attorney general also pointed out that monitors aren’t technically authorized by law and can be removed.
Will anyone else be monitoring the election this year?
The Justice Department won’t be the only one keeping an eye on the 2026 election. Voting rights groups such as Common Cause and the ACLU are sending their own monitors. Senate Democrats are also sending over 100 staffers to monitor elections in nine states.
“Donald Trump has made clear that he wants to ‘take over the voting’ in state-run elections. Election interference is unconstitutional and illegal and Congress will be watching,” Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla, of California, said in a press release.
Carter Walker is a reporter for Votebeat in partnership with Spotlight PA. Contact Carter at cwalker@votebeat.org.
