Missouri’s Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft and Attorney General Andrew Bailey filed a lawsuit against the Biden Department of Justice (DOJ), seeking to prevent them from placing unauthorized poll watchers from voting stations.
“For the second election cycle in a row, the Department of Justice, at the 11th hour, has announced an intent to displace state election authorities,” the lawsuit reads.
“To secure elections, Missouri exercised that traditional authority by enacting a law that strictly limits who, besides voters, can be present in a polling location. Poll monitors employed by DOJ are not on that list,” it adds. “Yet without specifically citing any federal authority authorizing its actions, DOJ announced on Friday, November 1, its intent to displace Missouri law and place unauthorized poll monitors in polling locations in the City of St. Louis.”
In its November 1 press release, the DOJ declared that it “plans to monitor compliance with federal voting rights laws in 86 jurisdictions in 27 states for the Nov. 5 general election.”
The DOJ explained that its Civil Rights Division will organize the effort. “Monitors will include personnel from the Civil Rights Division, other department divisions, U.S. Attorney’s Offices and federal observers from the Office of Personnel Management,” the department wrote. “Throughout Election Day, division personnel will maintain contact with state and local election officials.”
According to the lawsuit, the DOJ’s press release “never states whether any of these laws in fact gives, for example, staff from the Office of Personnel Management authority to enter state polling locations in contravention of state law.”
A similar incident occurred during the 2022 election. After Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft said the DOJ’s actions violated state law, the department “reversed course and did not send personnel into Missouri polling places during the November 8, 2022, election,” the filing notes.
“The presence of DOJ personnel at Missouri polling places on Election Day violates Missouri law. Missouri law permits only certain categories of persons to be present in voting locations, including voters, minor children accompanying voters, poll workers, election judges, etc.,” the lawsuit explains, emphasizing that “none of the categories includes the federal officials identified in the press release.”
Attorney General Andrew Bailey announced the lawsuit in a statement on X, writing, “I filed suit against the Biden-Harris DOJ for sending unauthorized poll monitors to Missouri polling locations.” He added that the “law is clear that [Kamala Harris] can’t just send unvetted individuals into our polling places. It’s illegal and undermines trust in our elections.”
“No one is above the law,” Ashcroft said in a statement. “The law clearly and specifically limits who may be in polling places and this action by the DOJ is not allowed. Once again the federal government is attempting to illegally interfere in Missouri’s elections.”
He further declared that the DOJ’s effort to monitor polls is a “repeat performance.”
“Two years ago, we met with the DOJ. We showed them the law and explained that they have no jurisdiction to interfere in Missouri elections. Now they are doing the same thing; trying to go through the back door by contacting local election officials and making false jurisdictional claims for access rather than contacting my office directly,” Ashcroft explained. “The DOJ just doesn’t seem to get it – we don’t need them here; we don’t want them here. This time we are taking it a step further and filing a lawsuit against the DOJ to get them to stop the continued harassment.”
