The U.S. Department of Justice plans to send federal election monitors to Bexar County and seven other Texas counties on Election Day. The other counties are Dallas, Harris, Waller, Blanco, Bowie and Nueces. The agency said it is deploying about 1,000 monitors and observers across all 50 states, and it calls the effort its largest election monitoring operation in history.
The monitors will watch for possible violations of federal voting rights laws, including voter intimidation, discrimination and barriers that could keep eligible voters from casting ballots. The DOJ said they will check whether election procedures follow the Voting Rights Act, the Help America Vote Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act. The effort is coordinated by the DOJ's Civil Rights Division. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said election integrity has been a top priority.
The DOJ did not say which Bexar County polling locations will be monitored or how many federal personnel will be assigned to the county. Federal officials will stay in contact with state and local election officials and will take questions and complaints from voters throughout the day.