The Department of Justice is preparing to flood polling sites across America with up to 1,000 federal election monitors this November, potentially the largest such deployment in the agency’s history.
Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Harmeet Dhillon announced the initiative last month, signaling that the Trump administration is taking election integrity seriously in ways previous administrations have not. A DOJ official confirmed to The Federalist that the monitoring effort could break all previous records.
“I’ve been a volunteer and private election lawyer in prior years and some of these jurisdictions are jurisdictions where I know I’ve got personal knowledge of there being problems in the past,” Dhillon told conservative talk show host Joe Pags. “So I think it should be a welcome sign in all jurisdictions that we have an eye on things.”
The numbers tell the story. During the 2022 midterms, the Biden DOJ sent fewer than 300 monitors nationwide. The 2024 presidential election saw 714 monitors dispatched to 86 jurisdictions in 27 states. Now the Trump administration is more than doubling that commitment.
Monitors have already been active during this primary season, covering 15 jurisdictions across six states: Arizona, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Virginia. More than 80 monitors have observed at over 200 polling locations so far. This week alone, 12 monitors were present at polls in Boston, New Bedford, and Lowell during Massachusetts’ primary elections.
Democrats have predictably attacked the initiative, accusing the administration of weaponizing the Voting Rights Act of 1965. But past Democrat administrations deployed their own monitors without complaint.
“The more eyes we have on elections, in my opinion, the better because the more people will be confident in those elections,” Dhillon said. “We all want that as Americans.”
Some cities desperately need the oversight. Milwaukee has become infamous for election administration failures that have eroded public trust.
The latest fiasco unfolded during Wisconsin’s August 11 primary. According to the Milwaukee Election Commission, workers mistakenly downloaded audit log files instead of results on five of nine data sticks. The error stalled results in a nationally watched Democratic gubernatorial primary. Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, who had abandoned his campaign amid dismal polling only to be pulled back by party establishment figures, narrowly defeated state Rep. Francesca Hong.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission has consistently refused to hold the Democrat-led city accountable for what officials dismiss as “human errors.”
Milwaukee’s problems aren’t new. During the 2024 presidential election, election officials concealed the central count ballot tabulation behind a black curtain. Observers could watch absentee ballots arrive at the facility, but once ballots passed behind the curtain, meaningful observation became impossible. The DOJ has not released specific details on which jurisdictions will receive monitors in November. But if past performance indicates future need, several blue cities with documented integrity problems should expect visitors.
Federal election monitoring isn’t partisan. Both Republican and Democrat administrations have used the tool to protect voters and ensure compliance with federal law. What’s different now is the scale of the commitment and the clear message it sends: someone is watching.
