Fulton and Gwinnett are among three Georgia counties where federal poll monitors will be stationed Tuesday on Election Day, the U.S. Justice Department has announced.
The deployment is part of an effort that will send more than 500 monitors to 28 states to assure compliance with federal voting laws in this election.
Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp said Monday morning that he was confident the election will go well. He encouraged voters concerned with anything they see at the polls to call his office toll-free at 877-725-9797 or to log onto the elections page of the office's main www.sos.ga.gov website to submit a complaint.
The Justice Department is staffing its own toll-free hotline at 800-253-3931.
Hancock County, where voting advocates have tussled with election officials over alleged voter purges and polling location closures, is the third Georgia county where federal monitors will be stationed.
Voting advocates, including the Georgia NAACP, have petitioned the Justice Department to consider sending federal monitors here for the presidential election, the first since the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013 struck down a key provision of the federal Voting Rights Act. Jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination no longer need to seek approval before making changes to voting rules.
The department interpreted the ruling as limiting a process it has used to justify sending specialized observers inside polling places. The number of monitors being used this year is down from about 780 who were sent out to 23 states in 2012.
The reduction comes as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has been trying to rally his base with claims that the election will be rigged. He has called on his supporters to go to the polls and watch voters. It also occurs amid concerns that hackers could create chaos as voters head to the polls.
Still, as in previous years, the department will deploy both election observers and monitors to election sites across the country.
In the world of U.S. election enforcement, observers differ from monitors because they are specially designated officials with the legal authority to enter polling places. Monitors don’t have the same authority. They generally watch for intimidation or voting irregularities from outside, such as lobbying by supporters of a party or candidate too close to the voting site.
Only monitors are being sent to Georgia.
Without the full authority of the Voting Rights Act, the department can send observers inside polling places only where there is an existing court order to do so. For general elections, that applies to certain areas in only four states: Alaska, California, Louisiana and New York. Additionally, a court order permits observers for municipal elections in one jurisdiction in Alabama.
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