Some Republican-led states say they will push back on federal officials, saying they will block Justice Department election observers from entering polling places on Election Day. decades of practice to monitor violations of federal voting laws.

Authorities Florida And Texas They said they would not allow federal election observers into polling places on Tuesday. And on Monday, Missouri filed a lawsuit seeking a court order to block federal officials from monitoring inside polling places. Texas has filed a similar lawsuit seeking to permanently ban federal monitoring of the state’s elections.

The Justice Department announced last week that it had deployed election observers. 86 jurisdictions in 27 states Election Day. The Justice Department declined to comment on the Republican-led states’ moves but filed court documents urging the judge to deny Missouri’s request.

Race between Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and Republican candidate Donald Trump It’s a dead end, and both sides are bracing for possible legal challenges over vote counting. The Justice Department’s election monitoring effort, long implemented under both Democratic and Republican administrations, aims to ensure that federal voting rights are monitored.

Here’s a look at election observers and states’ actions:

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Who are election observers?

Election observers are attorneys who work for the Department of Justice, including its civil rights division and U.S. attorneys’ offices across the country. They are not law enforcement officers or federal agents.

For decades, the Justice Department’s civil rights division has dispatched lawyers and staff to monitor polling places across the country in both federal and nonfederal elections. Observers are charged with ensuring compliance with federal voting rights laws.

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division enforces a number of laws that protect the right to vote. This includes the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits intimidation and threats against people voting or counting votes. This also includes the Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires election officials to ensure that people with disabilities have a full and equal opportunity to vote.

“The Department of Justice has a nearly 60-year history of addressing Election Day issues to protect the voting rights of Black citizens and other communities of color,” said Edward Casper, acting co-chairman of the Lawyers’ Committee on Civil Rights. “While recent efforts to interfere with this process appear more bark than bite, they still pose a real threat to the enforcement of civil rights,” Law said.

Where are election observers sent?

The 86 jurisdictions to which the Justice Department will send monitors on Tuesday include: Maricopa County, Arizona And Fulton County, Georgia, In 2020, it became the center of election conspiracy theories spread by Trump and other Republicans. Another place on the list is Portage County, Ohio, where a sheriff filed a criminal complaint. social media post Harris said the addresses of people with yard signs should be recorded so that immigrants can be sent to live with them if Democrats win the presidency.

Other areas where federal observers will be sent include Detroit; Queens, New York; Providence, Rhode Island; Jackson County, South Dakota; Salem, Massachusetts; Milwaukee; Manassas, Virginia; Cuyahoga County, Ohio; and Northwest Arctic County, Alaska. Observers of the Ministry of Justice in St. There will be locations in St. Louis, four in Florida and eight in Texas.

What’s going on in Missouri?

Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, who filed the lawsuit Monday, said state law “clearly and specifically limits who can be present at polling places.” He also accused the federal government of “attempting illegal interference in Missouri elections.”

The lawsuit states that Missouri law “allows only certain categories of persons to be present at polling places, including voters, minor children accompanying voters, poll workers, election judges, etc.,” and not federal officials.

The Justice Department also sought to monitor polling places in Missouri in 2022. The agency planned to have officials in Cole County, which includes the state capital, Jefferson City. County Clerk Steve Korsmeyer said he wouldn’t let them in if they showed up.

The federal agency backed down after Ashcroft showed Justice Department officials the state law, Ashcroft said. He said the Justice Department was “trying to go through the back door” by contacting local election officials for access.

On Monday, St. Messages were left with the St. Louis Board of Election Commissioners.

In court documents filed late Monday, the Department of Justice said the St. John’s Office, which aims to ensure people with mobility and vision impairments can access polling places. He said he has the authority to monitor there under a settlement agreement with the St. Louis Board of Governors. The settlement was reached within Trump’s Justice Department in 2021 after federal officials found problems such as ramps being too steep and parking inaccessible, according to court documents. The agreement, which expires next year, says the board must “fully cooperate” with the Justice Department’s efforts to monitor compliance, “including, but not limited to, ensuring U.S. access to polling places in a timely manner (including on Election Day).”

An attorney and an investigator from the Department of Justice’s Disability Rights Division were in St. Louis on Tuesday to review accessibility issues. He said he was in St. Louis. Government lawyers said in court documents that the department had conducted such inspections “many times” under the settlement agreement, including during the April local elections.

What do other states say?

“Texas law is clear: Department of Justice observers are not permitted to enter polling places where ballots are cast or a central counting station where votes are counted,” Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson wrote in a letter to the Justice Department on Friday.

“Texas has robust processes and procedures to ensure that eligible voters can participate in a free and fair election,” Nelson wrote.

On Friday, Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd told the Justice Department in a similar letter that Florida law lists and Justice Department officials allowed into polling places in the state are not included. Byrd said Florida will send its own observers to the four counties where the Justice Department plans to send personnel and “will make sure there is no interference with the voting process.”