GOP officials in three states are trying to block Justice Department observers from entering polling places

In a sign of how distrust of the federal government has permeated Republican politics in the Trump era, Republican officials in three red states have tried to block the Justice Department from continuing its decades-long practice of sending observers to polling places.

Two of the states, Missouri and Texas, asked federal judges to intervene, but overnight those judges refused. Texas eventually reached an agreement with the Justice Department to resolve the issue.

Officials in Florida, Texas and Missouri said in recent days they would not allow Justice Department observers to do what they have done for nearly 60 years: deploy election observation staff to ensure federal civil rights and voting rights laws are being followed become.

According to a 2013 Supreme Court decision, Justice Department observers enter polling stations only with the consent of local officials unless there is a court order. If they are not allowed in, they speak to voters outside, in public areas.

In their federal lawsuits, officials from Missouri and Texas argued that their states' laws did not allow federal officials to be present at polling places.

“Texas law is clear,” Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson wrote in a letter to the DOJ on Friday. “Department of Justice observers will not have access to polling places where ballots are cast or to central counting stations where ballots are counted.”

In a lawsuit Monday, Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft said state law “clearly and specifically limits who can be at polling places” and he accused the federal government of “attempting to illegally interfere with Missouri's elections.” to interfere.”

Ashcroft is the son of former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, who served in the George W. Bush administration from 2001 to 2005 and had Justice Department officials serve as observers in several states without incident.

Florida has not filed a lawsuit, but Secretary of State Cord Byrd told the Justice Department in a letter Friday that state law does not allow Justice Department officials to enter polling places.

In the Missouri case, the Justice Department cited a 2021 settlement with the city of St. Louis that allowed the DOJ to monitor compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Federal District Judge Sarah Pitlyk denied Missouri's request for a preliminary injunction overnight, ruling that the harms cited were “speculative” and outweighed the federal interest in enforcing disability law.

In Texas, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk took a different approach. He rejected the injunction because he said he needed more information. The Justice Department is allowed to monitor polling places, he wrote, but is not allowed to send observers in without a federal court order.

Kacsmaryk directed the DOJ to confirm that there would be “no observers” at polling places in Texas.

But even before Kacsmaryk issued his order, the Texas attorney general announced an agreement with the Justice Department that would allow what the department had intended from the start, according to a Justice Department spokesperson: to stay outside polling places and talk to voters. Texas then dropped its lawsuit.

The Texas AG then issued a press release with the headline: “Attorney General Ken Paxton Secures Major Victory, Preventing Biden-Harris Administration from Illegally Sending Justice Department Personnel to Texas Voting Locations.”

The Republican officials acted after the Justice Department announced it would deploy monitors to 86 jurisdictions in 27 states, as it has done for decades, to monitor compliance with federal laws.

In an atmosphere of threats against poll workers, this was the highest number of jurisdictions monitored in 20 years.

DOJ monitors are typically low-level lawyers and department employees. Armed federal police officers are generally prohibited from entering polling stations secured by local law enforcement.

In addition to the Disabilities Act, the DOJ also enforces the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits intimidation and threats against voters.