Trump administration sued over plan to send election monitors to polling sites
The NAACP has filed a lawsuit against Justice Department civil rights chief Harmeet Dhillon to force disclosure of records on monitor deployments. The department says its monitors follow the law and long-standing practice.
The administration of US President Donald Trump has been hit with a lawsuit over its plan to station “a historic number” of election monitors at polling places during next month’s midterm elections. The civil rights group NAACP filed the case against Harmeet Dhillon, who heads the Justice Department’s civil rights division and has said she hopes to send 1,000 monitors to polling sites in November.
The NAACP argues the move could jeopardize the elections and interfere with voters’ right to take part without intimidation. Kristen Clarke, the organization’s general counsel, who held Dhillon’s post under Joe Biden, said no federal statute gives the department the right to send such monitors to polling sites nationwide.
Records request
The suit asks a court to compel the administration to release records about the monitor deployment. The NAACP says it requested them under the Freedom of Information Act on 1 September and that the department did not comply.
Department's response
Attorney General Todd Blanche confirmed on Sunday that monitors will go to all 50 states, but played down their role. Speaking to Fox News, he said the department has monitored elections since the 1960s and that the current administration is doing what its predecessors did. A department spokesperson said the monitors meet all legal and ethical requirements, including not interfering with voting.
Concerns within the Republican party
Unease has also come from a Republican. In August, Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon criticized the conduct of two monitors who, he said, arrived unannounced at a polling station during the state's primaries and tried to examine voting machines. He described the behavior as aggressive, unexpected and disruptive. The spokesperson said Dhillon had met the governor, the state attorney general and the Laramie County clerk, and rejected the characterization of the monitors as aggressive.
Clarke said that during the primaries monitors were deployed without notice to the public or local authorities. She called for transparency, noting that election day is only weeks away.
