Alameda County is one of four areas in California where election monitors dispatched by the U.S. Department of Justice are observing polling places on Tuesday, in what is being called the largest such monitoring effort in the agency’s history.
The county’s Interim Registrar of Voters Cynthia Cornejo said Tuesday morning that the DOJ had notified her office of the monitors, who are operating in four teams of two.
It’s not known which of the county’s 100 vote centers are being monitored by the teams. As of noon, there hadn’t been any issues reported to her office by the monitors, Cornejo said.
The monitors, who sign in at polling stations and wear visitor badges, are doing the same kind of observing that they have done in the past, Cornejo said.
“I am very proud we are deploying the largest monitoring effort in DOJ history, and pursuing transparency for elections in an assertive and nondiscriminatory manner.”
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon
That includes checking that signage is compliant, and that language assistance and disability accessibility is available.
The DOJ sent 1,000 monitors out across the country to all 50 states for Tuesday’s midterm elections. Besides Alameda County, the monitors placed in California will be observing elections in Los Angeles, Sacramento and San Diego.
“Election integrity has been one of the top priorities for this Administration and this Division,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said in a release. “I am very proud we are deploying the largest monitoring effort in DOJ history, and pursuing transparency for elections in an assertive and nondiscriminatory manner.”
The election monitors are checking for compliance with federal voting rights statutes, including the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Voting Rights Act.