As a sign of how much distrust there is in the federal government He penetrated the republican politics Under Trump, GOP officials in three red states have tried to block the Justice Department’s decades-long practice of sending observers to polling places.
Two of the states, Missouri and Texas, asked federal judges to intervene, but overnight those judges declined to do so. Texas eventually settled with the Department of Justice to resolve the issue.
Officials in Florida, Texas and Missouri said in recent days they would not allow DOJ supervisors to do what they have done for nearly 60 years: deploy staff to monitor voting to ensure compliance with federal civil and voting rights laws.
According to a 2013 Supreme Court ruling, DOJ inspectors enter polling stations only with the consent of local officials, absent a court order. If they are not allowed in, they talk to voters outside in public places.
Officials in Missouri and Texas have argued in federal court that their state laws do not allow federal officials to attend polling stations.
“Texas law is clear,” Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson said in a letter to the DOJ on Friday. “The observers of the Department of Justice are not allowed to enter the polling stations where the ballots are cast or the central counting station where the ballots are counted.”
In court Monday, Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft said state law “clearly and specifically limits who can be at the polls” and accused the federal government of “attempting to unlawfully interfere in Missouri’s elections.”
Ashcroft is the son of former US Attorney General John Ashcroft, who served in the George W. Bush administration from 2001 to 2005 and DOJ officials. serves as a monitor in many states without incident.
Florida did not file a lawsuit, but Secretary of State George Byrd said in a letter Friday to the Justice Department that state law does not allow DOJ officials at polling stations.
In Missouri, the Department of Justice cited an agreement with the city of St. Louis in 2021 that would allow the DOJ to monitor compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Federal District Judge Sarah Pitlyk overnight denied Missouri’s request for a temporary restraining order, ruling that the damages it cited were “speculative” and outweighed the federal interest in enforcing the disability law.
US District Judge Matthew Kaczmarik in Texas took a different approach. He refused a restraining order because he said he needed more information. The DOJ was allowed to monitor polling places, he wrote, but not to send observers inside without a federal court order.
Kacsmaryk ordered the DOJ to certify that there would be “no observers” at polling places in Texas.
But before Kacsmaryk issued his order, the Texas attorney general announced a deal with the Department of Justice that allows for what a DOJ spokesman said the department had intended to do all along — stay out of the polls and talk to voters. Texas then dropped its claim.
Texas AG then a press release Attorney General Ken Paxton secured a major victory preventing the Biden-Harris Administration from illegally sending DOJ personnel to Texas polls.
After the Department of Justice, the republican officials took action said it would be sent oversees 86 jurisdictions in 27 states, as it has done for decades to monitor compliance with federal laws.
In a climate of threats to election officials, this would have been the highest number of jurisdictions monitored in 20 years.
DOJ supervisors are senior department attorneys and employees. Armed federal law enforcement officers are generally prohibited from entering polling stations guarded by local law enforcement.
In addition to the Disabilities Act, the DOJ also enforces the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits intimidation and threats against voters.