DOJ plans to send 1,000 poll monitors to watch midterm elections
The Trump management announced plans to deploy approximately 1,000 poll monitors nationwide during the 2026 midterm elections, similar to previous efforts, to observe election processes and ensure fairness without intervening. These monitors will be trained with materials used in past administrations and will focus on issues such as voting barriers for individuals with disabilities and possible election fraud. This deployment is considered to be potentially the largest for a Republican administration. The monitors will operate under state law and aim to boost public confidence in election outcomes. Historically, the Justice Department has sent monitors to various jurisdictions during recent elections: 86 during the 2024 presidential election under Biden, 64 in the 2022 midterms, and 44 during Trump’s first term in 2020. The move follows concerns raised by officials about states not fully meeting election integrity standards, including updating voter rolls. The DOJ has also taken actions such as sending letters to election officials across all states and Washington D.C., and launching lawsuits over issues like California’s Glock firearm ban, emphasizing commitment to election integrity and lawful voting processes.
The Trump administration announced on Monday that it plans to deploy around 1,000 poll monitors nationwide in the 2026 midterm elections.
The monitors’ role is not to intervene but to observe the process, ensure it is carried out fairly, and follow up on any investigations, according to the Justice Department. The monitors are being trained on the same material used by previous administrations, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said, and will be watching for issues such as barriers to voting for people with disabilities, as well as cases of suspected election fraud.
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“We just did it in the primary,” Dhillon told Bloomberg. “We will do it to the tune of approximately 1,000 election monitors in the November election. This is something that DOJ does.”
This year’s deployment is “probably going to be a historic number for a Republican administration,” she added.
Those deployed will hold the same status as any other election monitor under state law, working to boost confidence in the election process, according to the DOJ.
“We respect state law,” Dhillon said. “We reach out to the states. If their perimeter is 150 yards, we respect that.”
During the Biden administration, the Justice Department sent monitors to 86 jurisdictions for the 2024 presidential election and 64 jurisdictions for the 2022 midterm elections, according to the Washington Post. During President Donald Trump’s first term, the department sent monitors to 44 jurisdictions for the 2020 presidential election.
The latest deployment comes as Dhillon has expressed concern that some states are not meeting Washington’s election integrity standards, including failing to scrub their voter rolls for noncitizens.
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Last month, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division sent letters to election officials in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., warning them to maintain accurate voter registration lists. The department also announced it will send federal election monitors to 15 jurisdictions across six states during this year’s primary elections.
“I just want every citizen at the end of the day … to accept the outcome of our elections because they have been run cleanly,” Dhillon previously told the Washington Examiner. “We’re not here for any particular candidate or outcome. We’re here to make sure that when the primary is done, people accept the outcome because it was done correctly.”
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