DOJ Swaps FBI and ICE Agents for Poll Monitors in Midterms
Federal officials will use ATF and DEA personnel instead to observe voting in November, a move following a lawsuit by the NAACP.
By Henry Wilson ·
The U.S. Department of Justice will not use FBI or ICE agents to monitor polls during the upcoming midterm elections.
Instead, the agency will deploy employees from the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Drug Enforcement Administration. A lawsuit filed by the NAACP prompted the change. The group sought to keep law enforcement personnel out of election monitoring roles.
Eric Neff, acting chief of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division Voting Section, addressed the matter in a court filing. He stated that the monitors would not act in a law enforcement capacity. Neff said the approach mirrors previous election cycles. The monitors will observe, take notes, and interview voters who agree to be spoken to outside polling places. They are barred from interfering with the vote and cannot carry firearms.
The department has not finalized all deployment locations. It also has not set a deadline to complete the list before Election Day. This decision arrives after federal agents appeared near early voting sites in Florida. U.S. Border Patrol vehicles were seen outside a Tallahassee library. A complaint was filed with the FBI, though the vehicles were reportedly there for unrelated reasons.
The DOJ aims to keep the election process free from intimidation. The agency seeks to maintain the integrity of voting while clarifying the role of federal staff at polling places.
Source: WGVL
