(AURN News) — The Justice Department waited until Election Day to reveal where it planned to send federal election monitors. More than two-thirds of the jurisdictions named Tuesday backed Kamala Harris in 2024, according to a Reuters analysis.
U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton declined to block the deployment but ordered DOJ to ensure its poll monitors were not law enforcement officers and had no arrest authority.
The NAACP and Advancement Project challenged the deployment. DOJ acknowledged in a court filing that a review with ATF and U.S. Marshals Service officials resulted in several sworn law enforcement officers being removed from its volunteer monitoring pool.
The NAACP called the outcome a victory for voters, citing the history of law enforcement in intimidating Black Americans at the polls.
DOJ described its nearly 1,000-person monitoring plan as its largest ever, saying that its purpose was to enforce federal voting rights laws.
