By Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff and Doina Chiacu
WASHINGTON, Nov 3 (Reuters) – The US Justice Department deployed officials on Tuesday across the country to monitor midterm voting in predominantly Democratic jurisdictions while widening a criminal probe into an Alaska campaign for a US Senate seat.
The department announced it was sending 1,000 election monitors and observers to jurisdictions in all 50 states. Democrat Kamala Harris defeated President Donald Trump in about two-thirds of those jurisdictions in the 2024 presidential election, a Reuters analysis found.
Black and Latino voters make up a majority in many of the jurisdictions, which are concentrated in states that could determine control of the US Senate.
The Trump administration has taken an aggressive approach to election oversight, pressing states for voter-registration data and arguing that stricter measures are needed to ensure public confidence in the vote.
That has included asking the Supreme Court to temporarily block California from counting mail-in ballots from more than 20,000 voters, who federal officials allege are likely noncitizens. The Supreme Court rejected that appeal Monday night. Critics have called those actions and the monitoring program potential voter intimidation.
In Alaska, the Senate race was thrown into turmoil after the New York Times reported last week that the campaign of Democratic candidate Mary Peltola helped recruit a third candidate who shares the first and last name of her Republican opponent, Dan Sullivan. Peltola has denied involvement.
The Justice Department has launched a criminal probe into the allegations, an investigation it is widening.
The department is sending letters to more than 20 people notifying them that they are subjects of the criminal probe, according to a person familiar with the investigation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk about it.
One of the recipients is voting rights lawyer Marc Elias, whose law firm frequently represents Democrats in court, the person said.
“No one should be surprised that President Trump’s Department of Justice is targeting me and my law firm on Election Day,” Elias said in a statement. “This administration has repeatedly weaponized the DOJ against the President’s political enemies despite zero evidence of wrongdoing, and we are the latest targets.”
‘LARGEST MONITORING EFFORT IN DOJ HISTORY’
The Justice Department has long sent monitors to states to observe elections, and senior officials have said they were dispatching observers to ensure compliance with federal law in areas where voters have historically had access issues and could face intimidation efforts in competitive races.
“I am very proud we are deploying the largest monitoring effort in DOJ history, and pursuing transparency for elections in an assertive and nondiscriminatory manner,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon in a statement.
The expanded federal monitoring program led several states to issue new guidelines to local election officials and poll workers about the limited authority DOJ observers will have on Election Day.
Some jurisdictions, including Hennepin County, Minnesota, which includes Minneapolis, have denied Justice Department requests for access to polling places. DOJ staff cannot conduct investigations on the spot or otherwise stop anyone from voting.
Election officials in New York’s Westchester County, where Republican Representative Mike Lawler is fighting to retain his seat in one of the nation’s most competitive districts, reported that there would likely be a delay in counting ballots because of a voting machine issue.
Minor hiccups often occur in elections, and Lawler has said he does not see any “shenanigans going on here.” But some Republicans have without evidence portrayed the glitch as a Democratic effort to steal the seat.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Don Durfee and Cynthia Osterman)
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