The Department of Justice declared it would send federal election monitors to voting locations across 24 states on Election Day, but the state of Florida isn’t having it. It wrote a letter to the DOJ that federal officials are not included on the list of people allowed inside their polling places.
“Even if they did qualify, it would be counterproductive and could potentially undermine confidence in the election,” state officials said.
The practice of monitoring local elections at the federal level dates back decades, but who exactly are the people doing the job? They are not law enforcement or federal agents. The monitors are lawyers who work for the U.S. government to watch for signs of disruption when voters are casting ballots. They’re generally sourced from the DOJ’s civil rights division and U.S. attorney’s offices. The government will also bring in employees from other agencies by a federal court order.
In Florida, each county runs its own election office. The three counties that the DOJ picked to monitor are run by an elected Democratic official.
The DOJ said it will comply with the Florida state order and indicated election monitors will stay outside polling locations.