The Department of Justice plans to send federal election monitors nationwide as voting nears—and political organizations are preparing large volunteer operations of their own.
DOJ: Monitors in all 50 states
“We will be in all 50 states doing the routine election monitoring the department has done for decades,” a DOJ spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF), per the Western Journal’s summary of that statement.
The department told the DCNF it will deploy around 1,000 monitors across U.S. counties and will release the full list closer to Election Day. The spokesperson added that “every monitor will merely observe and report any potential violations of federal law to the Department, which will be reviewed after Election Day,” and that monitors “must meet the same legal and ethical requirements, including that they not interfere with the voting process.”
AP: Democrats, coalitions mobilize tens of thousands
The Associated Press reported that state Democratic parties and coalition groups are training an estimated 10,000 volunteers to observe polling places. Common Cause has trained roughly 16,000 volunteers to serve as voting sentinels, vice president Suzanne Almeida told the AP. A broader Election Protection coalition involving roughly 300 groups has trained tens of thousands more volunteers, the AP reported. “It will actually take all of us if some of the threats we are most worried about come to pass,” Almeida told the AP.
AP: RNC trains 22,000 poll watchers
The Republican National Committee has trained 22,000 volunteers to send to the polls, the AP reported.
Key details, including the DOJ’s full monitoring locations, were not shared in advance, according to the department’s comments to the DCNF.
