GOP Officials in 3 States Move to Block DOJ Monitors from Entering Polls

In a sign of how mistrust of the federal government has permeated Republican politics in the Trump era, GOP officials in three red states have tried to block the Justice Department from engaging in its decades-long practice of sending observers to polling places.

Two of the states, Missouri and Texas, have asked federal judges to intervene, but overnight those judges declined to do so. Texas eventually reached an agreement with the Department of Justice to resolve the issue.

Officials in Florida, Texas and Missouri said in recent days that they would not allow DOJ monitors to do what they have done for nearly 60 years: Deploy staff to watch the vote to ensure that federal civil rights and voting rights laws are followed.

Under a 2013 Supreme Court ruling, DOJ monitors only enter polling places with the consent of local officials unless they have a court order. If they are not allowed inside, they speak to voters outside, in public areas.

In their federal lawsuits, Missouri and Texas officials argued that their state laws did not allow federal officials to be present at the polls.

“Texas law is clear,” Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson wrote Friday in a letter to the DOJ. “The Justice Department’s monitors are not allowed inside polling places where ballots are cast or a central counting station where ballots are counted.”

In a lawsuit Monday, Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft said state law “clearly and specifically limits who can be at the polls,” and he accused the federal government of “attempting to illegally interfere in Missouri’s elections.”

Ashcroft is the son of former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, who served in the George W. Bush administration from 2001 to 2005, and had DOJ officials act as monitors in several states without incident.

Florida did not file a lawsuit, but Secretary of State Cord Byrd told the Justice Department in a letter Friday that state law does not allow DOJ officials in polling places.

In the Missouri case, the Justice Department cited a 2021 settlement with the city of St. Louis, which allowed the DOJ to monitor compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Federal District Judge Sarah Pitlyk denied Missouri’s request for a temporary injunction overnight, ruling that the damages it cited were “speculative” and outweighed by the federal interest in enforcing the Disability Act.

In Texas, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk took a different approach. He refused the restraining order because he said he needed more information. The DOJ was allowed to monitor polling places, he wrote, but was not allowed to send observers inside without a federal court order.

Kacsmaryk ordered the DOJ to confirm that “no observers” would be present in polling places in Texas.

But even before Kacsmaryk issued his order, the Texas attorney general announced an agreement with the Justice Department that allows what a DOJ spokesman said the department intended to do all along — stay outside the polls and talk to voters. Texas then dropped its lawsuit.

The Texas AG then issued a press release with the headline: “Attorney General Ken Paxton secures major victory that prevents Biden-Harris administration from illegally sending DOJ personnel inside Texas polls.”

The Republican officials acted at the behest of the Justice Department announced that it would send monitors to 86 jurisdictions in 27 states, as it has done for decades to monitor compliance with federal laws.

In an atmosphere of threats to election workers, this was to be the highest number of jurisdictions monitored in 20 years.

The DOJ monitors tend to be rank-and-file department attorneys and staff. Armed federal law enforcement officers are generally prohibited from entering polling places secured by local law enforcement agencies.

In addition to the Disabilities Act, the DOJ also enforces the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits intimidation and threats against voters.