The United States Department of Justice has announced plans to deploy 1,000 election monitors across the country ahead of the November 3 midterm elections, a move that has drawn criticism from voting-rights organisations and election officials over fears it could discourage voter participation.
The department described the exercise as the “largest monitoring effort in history”, with monitors scheduled to operate in cities and counties across all 50 states.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said election integrity remained a major priority for the administration.
In a statement, she said, “Election integrity has been one of the top priorities” for the administration.
However, voting-rights organisations, including the NAACP, have raised concerns that the deployment could intimidate voters and potentially deny some people their right to vote, particularly members of minority communities.
Josh Zygielbaum, the clerk and recorder of Adams County, Colorado, where federal monitors are expected to be deployed, questioned the need for the exercise, insisting that the county had no history of election-related misconduct.
“We’ve never had any complaints,” he said. “We’ve never had any charges filed. We’ve never been under investigation.”
The development comes after President Donald Trump announced a $1m reward for anyone who provides information that leads to “the arrest and conviction” of individuals involved in voter fraud.
Trump made the announcement in a social media post on October 26.
The Justice Department has also urged members of the public with questions or complaints about election-related matters to contact its dedicated hotline at 800-253-3931 or send an email to VEMW@usdoj.gov.
An examination of the locations selected for monitoring shows that several are in areas with sizeable Black and Hispanic populations, particularly in states facing closely contested Senate races.
In Texas, where Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton is challenging Democratic state Representative James Talarico, Hispanic residents make up about 41 per cent of the population, while Black residents account for approximately 13 per cent.
The selected counties include Nueces, where Hispanics represent 64 per cent of residents, Bexar with 60 per cent, and Harris with 46 per cent. Other locations, such as Bowie, Waller and Dallas counties, also have Black populations above the state average, at 26, 25 and 22 per cent respectively.
Michigan, where Democrat Abdul El-Sayed is contesting against Republican Mike Rogers, has a Black population of about 14 per cent. Federal monitors have been assigned to Detroit, where 75 per cent of residents are Black, Flint with 56 per cent, as well as Lansing and Warren, both with approximately 22 per cent.
The selected Michigan locations also include communities with significant Middle Eastern and North African ancestry. Dearborn was the first city in the United States to have a majority population descended from the Middle East or North Africa, while nearly one-third of Hamtramck’s residents trace their roots to the region.
In Georgia, where Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff is facing Republican Representative Michael Collins, Black residents account for about 33 per cent of the state’s population.
The monitoring exercise will cover Bibb County, which is 56 per cent Black, DeKalb County at 51 per cent, and Fulton County at 44 per cent. Chatham, Cobb and Gwinnett counties were also selected, although their Black populations are closer to the state average.
The deployment, however, is not limited to areas with large minority populations.
In Ohio, where Republican Senator Jon Husted is contesting against former Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown, Black residents make up approximately 13 per cent of the population.
The Justice Department selected Cuyahoga County, where Black residents account for 30 per cent of the population, and Franklin County, with 25 per cent. It also included Medina County, which is predominantly white, with white residents making up about 90 per cent of its population.
