The Justice Department has announced plans to send federal monitors to 27 states across the country to ensure compliance with federal voting rights laws. This is an increase from the 18 states monitored during the 2020 election. The states on the list include Texas, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
However, some Republican officials in certain states are refusing to allow these federal monitors inside local polling places. In Texas, for example, a spokesperson for the secretary of state stated that DOJ monitors are not authorized inside polling places, despite the department sending monitors to eight jurisdictions in the state.
Similarly, in Florida, federal monitors were banned from entering polling stations during the 2022 midterm elections. The DOJ plans to send four monitors to Florida this year, although the secretary of state has not provided a comment on the matter.
In Arkansas, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders has stated that the DOJ will not be permitted to improperly intimidate or unduly influence voters, citing a violation of state law. The spokesperson emphasized that the Justice Department does not have the right to be inside polling stations.
Before the Supreme Court's 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder, the federal government had the authority to send observers into polling places to monitor elections. However, the court's decision limited the department's ability to dispatch observers by throwing out the formula for determining where they could be sent.
As a result, when federal monitors are denied access to polling stations, they will be positioned outside alongside other observers, including those aligned with presidential candidates.
