The Ministry of Justice is expanding the monitoring site on election day

The Justice Department will oversee elections in 86 jurisdictions across the country on Tuesday, nearly doubling the number of districts this presidential election cycle and adding seats in key states that should decide the race.

Department officials are routinely called in to monitor compliance with federal voting rights laws on Election Day to ensure access to ballots. US government officials sent observers to 44 jurisdictions during the 2020 general election.

The stormy presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump has been plagued by issues including voter intimidation, threats to poll workers and Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of election fraud.

Local jurisdictions on the 2024 list range from critical areas like Philadelphia and Allegheny counties in Pennsylvania to remote locations like the Northwest Arctic in Alaska. Jurisdictions in seven major swing states appear on the watch list, including Fulton County, Georgia, which was the subject of Trump’s false claims of election fraud after the 2020 presidential election.

Federal monitoring of voting rights will also take place Tuesday in Atlanta jurisdictions such as Cobb County, DeKalb County and Gwinnett County. In 2020, Cobb and DeKalb counties had no federal monitors, while Fulton and Gwinnett did.

Ryan Buchanan, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, said in a press release Friday that “free and fair elections are critical to our nation’s democracy.”

“Every eligible voter has the right to vote without fear of intimidation, interference or discrimination,” Buchanan said. “Our office will commit the necessary resources to ensure that this fundamental right is protected for all voters.”

The department also added more jurisdictions in other swing states this presidential cycle, including Arizona, which will now have monitoring in Apache, Pima, Yuma and Maricopa counties. Clark County, Nevada, which covers Las Vegas, is also planned to be monitored.

The push is consistent with the Department of Justice’s broader efforts to protect the integrity of the 2024 election, which include prosecution threats related to elections and exposure foreign schemes to fluctuate Americans’ view of the election.

Federal election monitoring efforts have met with resistance from officials in some Republican states.

The Washington Post reported that Republican leaders in Missouri and Florida said Justice Department officials would likely be denied access to polling places in this year’s elections.

Claire Woodall, the former executive director of the city of Milwaukee’s Board of Elections, said during a media briefing Friday with other former election officials that there was an incident in the city in 2022 when Republican observers chased Justice Department observers out of a polling place and parked their. many.

Federal monitors, she said, are “extremely helpful” as auditors. According to her, the observers will contact the election administrators if they notice something on the ground that causes concern, whether it is voter intimidation or the absence of bilingual workers at a certain precinct.

“Unfortunately, they’ve been politicized in recent years,” Woodall said of the monitors.