Justice Department Begins Notifying Counties It Plans to Monitor November Vote
The U.S. Department of Justice has begun notifying counties that it wants to monitor polling places on Election Day, NPR reported. The notices began going out during the week of October 21, 2026. As of October 21, counties in Colorado, Florida, Minnesota, Texas and Washington had received them. Adams County, Colorado, is one of the counties that received a notice.
Harmeet Dhillon, head of the department's Civil Rights Division, said the department planned to send 1,000 observers nationwide. She described it as the largest monitoring effort in the department's history. Reuters reported that the department plans to deploy about 1,000 monitors in all 50 states on Election Day.
Department spokesperson Kiersten Pels said details on which jurisdictions the department plans to monitor in November, and how many, will be shared closer to the election.
Monitoring is handled by the Civil Rights Division, which uses federal observers and division attorneys to watch polling places on Election Day, according to the department's website. In the 2022 midterms, the department monitored 64 jurisdictions in 24 states on Election Day, NPR reported.
NPR also reported a change in how the notices were shared. In past cycles, state officials were notified at the same time as county officials. In 2026, states were not initially notified, according to officials in three states.
The department has already conducted monitoring in several primary elections this year. It watched polls in Maricopa, Apache and Pima counties in Arizona, and it monitored in Miami-Dade County, Florida, and Laramie County, Wyoming. In Minnesota, it monitored in Hennepin and Ramsey counties and deployed over 50 monitors across seven counties, according to department announcements.
The NAACP filed a lawsuit over the Trump administration's plans to send election monitors to polls. The filing came after Dhillon said she hoped to send monitors, The Guardian reported.
