Florida Rejects DOJ Plan to Place Monitors Inside Voting Locations

Elections staff load ballots into machines as recounting begins at the Broward County Supervisor of Elections Office in Lauderhill, Fla., on Nov. 11, 2018. Joe Skipper/Getty Images

U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) workers are not allowed inside polling locations, a Florida official has told the agency.

Brad McVay, general counsel for the Florida Department of State, told DOJ election official John Russ that Florida law does not permit DOJ monitors to be stationed inside of polling places after the DOJ announced it would monitor compliance with federal voting laws in three Florida counties.

“Earlier today, the Florida Department of State received copies of your letters to Miami-Dade and Broward Counties in which you seem to indicate that the Department of Justice will send monitors inside polling places in these counties. We also understand you sent a similar letter to Palm Beach County,” McVay wrote in a letter.

“But Department of Justice monitors are not permitted under Florida law.”

Florida law lists people who can enter a polling room or place and DOJ personnel “are not included on the list,” McVay said.

Certain DOJ workers, McVay acknowledged, might fit within the definition of law enforcement officers, who are allowed inside with permission of the local clerk. But “absent some evidence concerning the need for federal intrusion, or some federal statute that preempts Florida law, the presence of federal law enforcement inside polling places would be counterproductive and could potentially undermine confidence in the election,” he told Russ.

The letters to the counties do not demonstrate a need to place federal monitors in the counties, according to the lawyer. None of the counties are subject to any election-related federal agreements, and none have been accused of violating federal laws related to elections.

During a phone call on Monday night, the Department of Justice did not provide any specific authorization for the plan to insert monitors into polling locations, according to McVay.

“Accordingly, the Florida Department of State invokes its authority under section 101.58(2) of the Florida Statutes to send its own monitors to the three targeted jurisdictions. These monitors will ensure that there is no interference with the voting process,” he said.

The DOJ did not respond to a request for comment.

At least one other jurisdiction also pushed back against the DOJ’s plan.

Steve Korsmeyer, the clerk in Cole County, Missouri, told The Epoch Times via email that “the DOJ won’t be allowed into our polling locations.”

He cited state law 115.409, which lists categories of people who are allowed into polling places.

Korsmeyer “has rightfully declined to allow this over-reach and the secretary of state’s office fully supports him,” Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, a Republican, said in a statement.

The DOJ said it was sending monitors to 64 jurisdictions across 24 states, including Pima County, Arizona; Cobb County, Georgia; and Flint, Michigan. It wasn’t clear how the states were chosen. The goal was to “monitor compliance with federal voting rights laws,” the department said.

DOJ has sent monitors to states for years, including in 18 states in the 2020 election.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, said on Glenn Beck’s radio show that “it’s a pretty unusual move for the federal government to come into a state.”

Asked if he could reject the workers, Paxton said he thought the federal civil rights act gave the U.S. attorney general the power to send monitors into state polling locations.