DOJ Tells Court It Pulled 'Several' Sworn Officers From Election Monitor Pool as 1,000 Monitors Deploy in All 50 States

The Justice Department told a federal judge early Tuesday that it removed "several sworn law enforcement officers" from the pool of volunteers serving as Election Day monitors, as the department sent roughly 1,000 monitors and observers to polling sites in all 50 states for the first time.

The disclosure came in a three-page status report filed in Washington, D.C., hours before polls opened on the East Coast. U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton ordered the report on Monday after the NAACP asked him to bar the department from using law enforcement personnel as poll monitors.

What DOJ Told the Court

In the filing, the department said there is "no prohibition on the use of sworn law enforcement officers as civil rights election monitors," but that its Civil Rights Division "undertook reasonable efforts to avoid using sworn officers."

According to the report, the division excluded personnel from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security and consulted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Drug Enforcement Administration. The DEA barred its sworn officers from serving. A review of specific employees with ATF and Marshals Service leadership "resulted in the removal of several sworn law enforcement officers from the volunteer monitoring pool," the filing says. It does not say how many.

The report also says employees of the Bureau of Prisons, including corrections officers, will serve as monitors. It acknowledges that those employees have limited arrest authority under federal law, mainly for offenses on prison property or involving escaped inmates, but argues: "It is inconceivable that anything could happen at a polling place where a BOP employee serving in a monitoring capacity would be authorized to make an arrest." The department said a review on Monday found no additional sworn officers.

What the Judge Ordered

Walton, in a written order Monday, denied the NAACP's request for a temporary restraining order. He found that a reasonable voter would not be intimidated by seeing a plainclothes volunteer who is not a law enforcement officer at a polling site, but wrote that his view "would differ" if the department sent officers with the power to make arrests.

He ordered the department to hold to its lawyers' concession that monitors would be administrative or clerical staff, would not wear uniforms or federal insignia, would not be armed and would not have arrest powers. Under rules described in a department declaration, monitors must dress business casual, may not talk to voters inside a polling place and may speak with voters outside only after they have voted. Walton said that if the NAACP believes the order is violated on Tuesday, it can notify the court, which "will take immediate action."

Where the Election Monitors Are Going

The department's announcement Tuesday lists the cities and counties it intends to monitor or observe. The list names 126 jurisdictions, according to a count by The Digital Free Press, with the most in Michigan (eight), Texas (seven), Georgia and Illinois (six each).

In New York, the list names New York, Kings, Albany and Erie, as well as Westchester County, where ballot scanners failed at polling sites Tuesday morning. In New Jersey, it lists Middlesex, Bergen and Union counties.

"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," said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, who leads the Civil Rights Division.

The department says it has sent election monitors across all administrations since the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It asks voters to report problems at a polling place to local election officials, report threats or violence to police by calling 911, and contact its election hotline at 1-800-253-3931.

Sources: U.S. Department of Justice, "DOJ To Monitor Elections in All 50 States for First Time," Nov. 3, 2026 (https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/doj-monitor-elections-all-50-states-first-time); Status Report, NAACP v. Blanche, No. 1:26-cv-03626 (D.D.C.), Dkt. 24, Nov. 3, 2026 (https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.297730/gov.uscourts.dcd.297730.24.0_2.pdf); Order, NAACP v. Blanche, Dkt. 22, Nov. 2, 2026 (https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.297730/gov.uscourts.dcd.297730.22.0_1.pdf); Fox News, "NAACP fails to block DOJ poll monitors but judge sets strict limits," Nov. 3, 2026 (https://www.foxnews.com/politics/federal-judge-orders-doj-ensure-poll-monitors-not-law-enforcement-officials). Cover photo: "Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building" by APK, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.