Today, the Civil Rights Division is monitoring polling sites in Massachusetts for the Commonwealth’s primary election to ensure transparency, ballot security, and compliance with federal law.
“Monitoring is an essential duty for the Civil Rights Division during election season,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Nonpartisan, nondiscriminatory monitoring efforts promote transparency, accountability, and most importantly trust in our federal elections.”
The DOJ, through the Civil Rights Division, enforces federal voting laws which protect the voting rights of all eligible citizens. The DOJ regularly deploys staff from the Civil Rights Division and other Department offices to monitor compliance with federal voting rights laws in communities across the country. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is providing personnel to assist in the effort.
The DOJ is monitoring polls in Boston, New Bedford, and Lowell with 12 monitors. Thus far the DOJ has deployed over 80 monitors across eight states and over 200 polling locations this primary season. By comparison, during the 2022 midterms the DOJ sent monitors to nine states during the primary season.
The Civil Rights Division’s Voting Section enforces various federal statutes that protect the right to vote, including the Voting Rights Act, National Voter Registration Act, Help America Vote Act, Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Civil Rights Acts.
From now through the general election on Nov. 3, Civil Rights Division personnel will be available to receive questions and complaints from the public related to federal voting rights laws. If you have a question or complaint or would like to request election monitoring in a particular jurisdiction, please contact the Voting Section at VEM@usdoj.gov.
