The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Oct. 28 confirmed that it is planning to send 1,000 election monitors and observers to polling locations around the United States ahead of the midterm elections.
In an emailed statement to The Epoch Times, DOJ spokeswoman Kiersten Pels said the department “will be in all 50 states.” She characterized the action as routine and something that has occurred “for decades.”
“We will have around 1,000 monitors in counties throughout the United States, but we will not share the full list until Election Day,” her statement added. “Every monitor will merely observe and report any potential violations of federal law to the Department, which will be reviewed after Election Day.”
Monitors must meet legal and ethical requirements to participate, she said, adding that they cannot interfere with voting at polling locations during the Nov. 3 elections, which could see control of Congress switch from Republicans to Democrats.
Pels, in describing the role of the monitors, said they will be sent to observe whether there are “potential violations of federal law and report concerns to the Department, which the Department will review after Election Day and act where appropriate.”
The statement did not provide any additional details on who would serve as monitors or where they would be sent.
The Trump administration has moved to take action ahead of the elections, including pressing states for voter-registration data and arguing that stricter measures are needed to ensure public confidence in the vote.
The Trump administration has made stopping illegal voting by noncitizens a centerpiece of a recent campaign and said it has priorities in going after voter fraud, prosecuting alleged offenders in past elections, and seeking to block California from counting some 20,000 mail ballots from voters the administration alleges are likely noncitizens.
Earlier this month, Harmeet Dhillon, the top official in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, was asked during an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” whether the Trump administration is planning to send Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to polling places.
“There is no plan to do that,” she responded.
CBS’s Lesley Stahl asked, “Would you consider a noncitizen voting an irregularity that would lead to a challenge of the vote?”
“I think that would lead to the person’s vote being challenged, but not the entire election,” Dhillon said, later adding, “I can tell you that absent some shocking contingency that is unexpected, there should be no interruption in the usual course of counting and certifying the results in the states.”
On Oct. 27, President Donald Trump was asked about the upcoming midterms during a press briefing and said that he would accept the results of the election “if they’re honest.”
He also told reporters that he would possibly work with Democrats if they prevail in the midterms but noted that he has the power to veto any measures that a Democratic-majority Congress could send him. Republicans now hold small majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
“We’ll figure a way. Look, I have a strong veto. I hope that that won’t be the case, but if it is, that’s happened before with many presidents,” he said.
The comments came as he announced on Oct. 26 that he would be offering a $1 million reward to anyone who provides information that leads to the arrest and conviction of any person who engaged in voter fraud in the upcoming midterms or past elections.
The DOJ has said it monitored hundreds of polling places in 11 states during this year’s primary elections. Few incidents were reported, but in Wyoming, the state’s Republican governor, Mark Gordon, asked the state attorney general to investigate what he described as aggressive conduct by DOJ monitors.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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