Justice Department Sends More Than 1,000 Monitors to the Polls and Takes Its California Ballot Fight to the Supreme Court on Election Eve

The Justice Department has dramatically stepped up its election monitoring for Tuesday's midterms, sending more than 1,000 monitors out to all 50 states, USA TODAY reported on Monday. A department spokeswoman said all of the observers will be Justice Department personnel trained on state and local laws, and will be there to monitor, document and report on compliance with federal voting laws; they are not authorized to intervene to address compliance questions such as whether someone is a U.S. citizen. The scale is the change: the department has a long history of monitoring elections, typically to ensure people can vote, but several county officials told USA TODAY they were not given much information about why their jurisdiction was picked for a monitor, and several noted they are in liberal-leaning areas with large Hispanic populations.

The deployment drew a court fight that landed on election eve itself. Voting rights groups including the NAACP say they believe the administration's decision to deploy monitors could suppress turnout and disenfranchise voters, particularly from minority groups; the NAACP has sued to block the department from using law enforcement agents to monitor polls, and a hearing in that challenge was scheduled for Monday afternoon. Separately, U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson granted a temporary restraining order on the evening of Oct. 30, in a suit brought by labor unions and civil rights groups including the NAACP, barring the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security from pressuring election officials in any state - including demands that officials segregate ballots, purge voters from the rolls or halt ballot processing, and threats of criminal prosecution; Thompson also scheduled a hearing for Monday afternoon, and the department has appealed her order to the 9th Circuit.

And on Monday the department took its furthest-reaching ballot fight to the nation's highest court. The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to direct California to set aside mailed ballots cast by anyone on a list of 20,000 registered voters the administration alleges may not be citizens, filing the emergency request on Nov. 2, the day before the elections that will decide control of Congress. California said it already has safeguards to protect election integrity and called the process the administration used to create its list 'highly suspect.' U.S. District Judge David Carter had rejected the department's request on Oct. 28, saying never before in history has the federal government sought to coerce a state to abandon its constitutional election procedures. Palm Beach County voters will see none of these fights at their own precincts on Tuesday, but their results will be counted under the same contested rules.