DOJ Monitoring Polls in Florida, Wyoming Primaries

The U.S. Department of Justice said it is monitoring polling sites in Florida and Wyoming during today’s primary elections as part of an effort to ensure compliance with federal voting laws.

The DOJ said in an Aug. 18 statement that “approximately four Civil Rights Division attorneys” will be monitoring polls in Miami-Dade County, Florida, and two Civil Rights Division attorneys will be in Laramie County, Wyoming.

“Election monitoring is an ongoing priority for this office,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Civil Rights Division said in a statement. “Nondiscriminatory monitoring ensures all elections remain free, fair, and accessible to all.”

The department said it has deployed more than 75 monitors across five states and more than 200 polling locations during this year’s primary season. During the 2022 midterm elections, the DOJ sent monitors to nine states.

The Civil Rights Division has previously monitored elections in both Florida and Wyoming, including during the 2022 election cycle.

The department said the monitoring is intended to promote transparency and communication between poll observers and federal election monitors.

DOJ officials will continue to handle questions and complaints concerning federal voting rights laws through the Nov. 3 general election.

There are primaries today in Florida, Wyoming, and Alaska. In California, a special election is being held to replace Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell, who resigned his seat in April.

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), endorsed by President Donald Trump, is the favorite to get the GOP nomination for Florida governor. Donalds is up against nine other candidates in the primary.

The Wyoming gubernatorial race features Republicans Megan Degenfelder, the Wyoming superintendent of public instruction, state Sen. Eric Barlow, retired U.S. Marine Corps Col. Brent Bien, and rodeo-production professional Curt Blake. Trump endorsed Degenfelder, and the state GOP has backed Bien.

The monitoring comes as the Trump administration has increased its focus on election integrity. In a July address, Trump said his administration uncovered profound vulnerabilities in the U.S. election system.

The president cited newly declassified intelligence documents that he said showed vulnerabilities in U.S. election infrastructure and efforts by China to obtain American voter information.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Dhillon said the DOJ would send 1,000 election monitors for the November elections.

She said the DOJ sees a problem with what she said were election officials who are refusing to clean up their voter rolls and knowingly allowing noncitizens to stay on the voter rolls.

The DOJ has filed 31 lawsuits seeking complete voter-registration data: suits against 30 states and Washington, DC, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Federal courts have dismissed initial cases in 23 states, according to Democracy Docket, a progressive voting rights and election law news and litigation-tracking organization founded by Democratic election attorney Marc Elias. The legal process is not over with appeals.

Elias took issue with the 1,000 observers and speculated that cities that vote primarily Democratic would be targeted.

“This is not business as usual. … This is part and parcel of a voter suppression scheme,” Elias said in a video posted to his social media.

In New Jersey, Gov. Mikie Sherrill said in July that a software error in the state’s Motor Vehicle Commission system resulted in roughly 6,600 people who indicated that they were not U.S. citizens being registered to vote between June 2023 and June 2024.

The software company IDEMIA, which worked with the state of New Jersey, said the individuals disclaimed U.S. citizenship but also said they indicated “Yes” to wanting to register to vote. The company suggested the New Jersey government was responsible for the noncitizens being placed on the state’s voter rolls. The state must still validate the information submitted to it, IDEMIA said.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said Tuesday that New Jersey has agreed to work with the Department of Homeland Security to identify potential noncitizens on the state’s voter rolls.

“The 35,000 potential registered aliens we identified may only be the beginning—look forward to helping NJ identify illegal voters and ensure election integrity,” Mullin said in a post on X.

Last week in Michigan, Attorney General Dana Nessel said charges were filed against five noncitizens accused of voting in the 2024 general election and one U.S. citizen accused of registering her noncitizen spouse to vote.

Timothy Frudd contributed to this report.