U.S. Justice Dept To Send 1,000 Monitors To Observe November Elections

On August 17, U.S. Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet K. Dhillon told Bloomberg News that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) plans to send 1,000 monitors to polling places across the country to observe the November 3 midterm elections. Traditionally, the DOJ sends monitors as required by the 1965 Voting Rights Act to areas with a long history of voter discrimination against African-Americans and other minorities, to ensure compliance with the 1965 Voting Rights Act and other civil rights legislation. However, in the recent August 4 Michigan primary, the federal monitors were sent to African-American strongholds such as Detroit and Hamtramck, and other Democratic cities such as Lansing and East Lansing. Some fear that the true objective this year is not to protect minority voters, but to implement President Trump’s February call to “nationalize” the voting process.