The good news: The Trump Justice Department has told a federal court that ICE agents won’t be deployed as election monitors at polling places in Tuesday’s midterm elections.
The bad news: Employees of the federal prison system will be.
And so will personnel from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
Why on earth are these federal law enforcement agencies involved in monitoring Americans casting their votes?
All of this came out in a federal court filing Wednesday night, in a case brought by the NAACP seeking records about the Justice Department’s election-monitoring plans. The NAACP has also filed a lawsuit to block federal prosecutors and law enforcement personnel from serving as election monitors.
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The government confirmed that ICE and FBI employees won’t be poll monitors—although that doesn’t mean they couldn’t be sent near polling places in some other capacity—but then revealed that personnel from other federal law enforcement agencies would be acting as poll monitors.
They just won’t be “acting” in their capacity as law enforcement, the government said, but as poll monitors.
What?
As Reuters reports, “The poll monitors will mainly observe polling places, take notes and will be prohibited from carrying firearms, the filing said. The Justice Department said monitors have been trained not to interfere in voting and to follow state and local rules, consistent with past practice.”
Does that make you more comfortable? Me neither.
The administration has claimed its plan to send 1,000 poll monitors is no different from what it’s done previously. But the scale is unprecedented, and election officials and voting rights advocates are concerned that the focus has changed. As Democracy Docket notes:
In addition to the size of the DOJ’s monitoring plans, observers fear the scope has changed. In the past, monitors sought to ensure that election officials did not improperly prevent voters from casting their ballots. This year, officials worry the focus will be the exact opposite.
And the concerns aren’t coming only from Democrats. Wyoming’s Republican governor, Mark Gordon, called the behavior of two Justice Department monitors during his state’s August primary “a bit aggressive” and “irregular.” (The monitors, who were DOJ attorneys, had asked about examining voting machines. Gordon asked the state attorney general to investigate, while the Justice Department claimed that the monitors had done anything improper.)
And now we know that some of these monitors will come from federal law enforcement agencies, rather than from the ranks of experienced civil rights attorneys and professional staff who have traditionally monitored elections.
What expertise do employees of the federal prison system have in monitoring elections, or personnel from the ATF? Their presence, weapons or not, is all about voter intimidation.
Thankfully, those standing for democracy are not unprepared. Democrats and pro-democracy groups have been preparing and war-gaming possible Election Day interference. Trump’s federal monitors will have company, with a huge presence of people monitoring the DOJ’s poll monitors. And the number of volunteers being trained far exceeds the number the administration plans to deploy.
Let’s first put into perspective that more than 41 million Americans have already voted by mail or early in-person voting, according to the University of Florida Election Lab. But to make sure Election Day is not threatened, Democrats and nonpartisan watchdogs have organized a huge presence.
The Associated Press breaks down the organized response. State Democratic parties have trained an estimated 10,000 volunteers. Roughly 16,000 more volunteers have been trained by Common Cause. Tens of thousands more have been trained by a broader Election Protection coalition involving some 300 organizations.
Democratic leaders have put together a substantial legal team, preparing for possible federal interference, while a new Democratic Party cybersecurity unit will focus on online disinformation and AI deepfakes.
This will be an Election Day like no other, and again, that’s why it’s really encouraging that so many people have already voted. Trump will stop at nothing to interfere—we’ve discussed the various court cases, many of which have failed—and the potential for voter intimidation is high on the list of concerns, underscored by what the DOJ revealed in its court filing Wednesday night.
That’s why it’s important that those defending democracy have been planning for many months—and are prepared.
I wouldn't believe anything our current Federal Government says these days.
My guess is that both ICE and the FBI WILL be at polling places on Tuesday, they'll just be wearing DEA and ATF windbreakers.
Wouldn't be surprised if they try to incite something to try to shutdown or slow the lines down.