Election Day & the U.S. Dep't of Justice - Watching the Polling Places

Today, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it will send monitors to observe polling place voting activities in 28 counties across 18 states on Election Day, November 4. As DOJ announced in its press release:

“Although state and local governments have primary responsibility for administering elections, [DOJ’s] Civil Rights Division is charged with enforcing the federal voting rights laws that protect the rights of all eligible citizens to cast ballots on Election Day…

Since the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the department has regularly monitored elections in the field in jurisdictions around the country to protect the rights of voters. The Voting Rights Act prohibits discrimination in the election process on the basis of race, color or membership in a minority language group. In addition, the act requires certain jurisdictions to provide language assistance during the election process.“

The press release can be accessed here: http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-ground-monitoring-polling-places-18-states-election-day-0

The list of places that will host DOJ on November 4 is rather eclectic, from small, rural counties, such as South Dakota’s Charles Mix County, to some of the largest urban areas in the United States – Harris County, Texas (Houston), Hillsborough County, Florida (Tampa), Chicago, Illinois, and Bergen County, New Jersey (just across the Hudson River from New York City).

During my former career as a DOJ Senior Attorney, I led many Election Day monitoring missions to enforce federal voting laws, on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona, in New York City on 9/11, to an organized crime-controlled city two months before my son’s birth, and to a small town where I was awakened at 6 am by a ringing telephone and a mysterious voice on the other end warning “that there would be trouble on Election Day.” These and other experiences are recollections for another time.

The 18 states with DOJ guests on Election Day should take DOJ’s visit as a heads-up. DOJ’s November 4 selections may be indicators of ongoing investigations, warnings of federal legal compliance concerns, and could be place holders for another visit two years from now, when Election Day 2016 promises to attract much attention and interest from my former federal colleagues.

Having conducted dozens of DOJ election investigations, recommending many different locations for federal Election Day scrutiny, I believe that DOJ has been very busy the last few weeks - contacting sources, checking out media reports, and making its selections of places to drop into on November 4. DOJ also traditionally uses its election monitoring to gather evidence to confirm or refute allegations of federal voting law violations. Much is going on behind the scenes and may well play out over the next few months.

Many of the counties selected were likely chosen because of recent lawsuits brought by DOJ to resolve allegations of federal voting law violations. These cases, resolved by court orders signed by federal judges, authorizes DOJ to monitor polling places until a certain date in 2015 or 2017, for example. Orange County, NY, Alameda County, CA, and Colfax County, NE may have been chosen for this reason. Other counties represent longstanding places of interest for DOJ, such as Cibola County, NM, because of allegations of voting discrimination against Native Americans. Some places, such as Shelby County, TN, home of Memphis, represent relatively new DOJ locations and may indicate active DOJ concerns and investigations.

One of DOJ’s likeliest targets are the many counties that The Voting Rights Act requires provide election information in different languages, such as Navajo, Spanish, Chinese, Apache, Vietnamese, and many others. Many of the counties DOJ selected for coverage, such as Maricopa and Harris Counties, Milwaukee County, WI, Cibola and Bergen Counties, Finney County, KS and Lehigh County, PA, have such election information obligations. Other places, such as Douglas County, NE, are included because population changes may make them candidates for new language assistance obligations.

On Election Day, if you see well-dressed folks standing off to the side in your polling places taking notes, they could well be from DOJ, investigating and enforcing federal laws to prevent voting and election discrimination. I recommend that when local and state officials spy my former colleagues, these officials take heed and realize that DOJ is not visiting you by coincidence. DOJ may well be putting down a marker to return in two years or to see you in a federal court as soon as a federal marshal can say, “I have a summons & complaint for you.”