Federal judges denied two states’ requests to bar the Justice Department (DOJ) from dispatching lawyers to monitor adherence to federal voting rights laws on Election Day.
Both Missouri and Texas asked federal courts to keep DOJ lawyers away from their polls. Missouri’s attorney general and secretary of state said any monitoring would “displace state election authorities,” and Texas’s attorney general contended that “Texas law alone determines who can monitor voting in Texas.”
The DOJ announced its intent to send poll monitors to 27 states in a press release Friday, asserting the agency “regularly deploys its staff to monitor for compliance with federal civil rights laws in elections in communities all across the country.” The agency plans to monitor one city in Missouri, St. Louis, and eight counties in Texas.
In its opposition to Missouri’s request, the Justice Department pointed to a settlement it reached with St. Louis reached regarding a separate matter, compliance with the American Disabilities Act, in the final days of former President Trump’s administration.