The U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division will send more than 500 people to monitor polls in 28 states on Tuesday with an eye on possible cases of voter intimidation as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump continues to insist that the election is rigged.
The department regularly sends people to monitor elections in support of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibits racial discrimination in voting.
"On Election Day itself, lawyers in the Civil Rights Division's voting section will staff a hotline starting in the early hours of the morning, and just as we have sent election monitors in prior elections, we will continue to have a robust election monitors program in place on Election Day," Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in a news release. "The department is deeply committed to the fair and unbiased application of our voting rights laws, and we will work tirelessly to ensure that every eligible person that wants to do so is able to cast a ballot."
The monitors will pay particular attention to whether voters are being subjected to different voting procedures based on their race, their color or the language they speak, among other things. The monitors do not appear to be focused on allegations of voter fraud. Authorities said the U.S. attorneys' offices nationwide handle reports of election fraud.
Monitors will be sent to polling places in Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that Tuesday's election is rigged, saying last month in a tweet that, "Of course there is large scale voter fraud happening on and before election day."
Fact-checking site PolitiFact gave the statement a "Pants On Fire" rating, meaning that the claim has no basis in fact.
People who see evidence of Election Day fraud can contact a local U.S. attorney's office, an FBI office or the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section at 202-514-1412.
The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division will also have staff members available by phone to deal with reports of possible violations of federal voting rights laws at 1-800-253-3931 or 202-307-2767. Complaints can also be sent by email to voting.section@usdoj.gov.
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