Pennsylvania officials respond to Trump DOJ's plan to send election monitors to Philadelphia, 3 other counties
The Justice Department plans to send election monitors to four Pennsylvania counties for the 2026 midterm election, according to a letter sent to state officials.
The election monitors will be present in polling places in Philadelphia, Allegheny, Luzerne and Lehigh counties on Election Day, Nov. 3, the letter to Secretary of State Al Schmidt states. An attorney in DOJ's Civil Rights Division authored the letter sent Oct. 22.
"The monitoring by the Civil Rights Division is done in the same way as in the past. Our monitors only observe and take notes," the letter stated. "They do not intrude or interfere in any way in the voting process. Monitors will introduce themselves to the poll manager and present government ID (and a letter from the jurisdiction permitting entrance to the polls with the monitors' names, if the jurisdiction wants each monitor identified)."
In August, the Justice Department announced it would send a record 1,000 election monitors to polling places across all 50 states.
Monitors are often sent to polling places to check on compliance with the federal Voting Rights Act — which prohibits voters from discrimination and intimidation that would prevent them from casting a ballot on the basis of race, gender, ethnicity, religion, disability or other protected statuses.
For the most recent midterms in 2022, 289 people served as election monitors nationwide, CBS News reported. In the 2024 general election, there were 714 monitors dispatched across 27 states.
Typically, Justice Department staff serve as election monitors with some assistance from members of the local U.S. Attorney's Offices.
The department said it would not share the full list of locations it was monitoring until Election Day.
Rules for election monitors
The letter states that all monitors will dress in business casual clothing with no identification with the Justice Department allowed. Monitors will be unarmed. If they observe an issue, they're supposed to contact their team lead, and they are not supposed to talk to voters.
"Every monitor has the same role: observe for potential violations of federal law and report concerns to the Department, which the Department will review after Election Day and act where appropriate," a DOJ spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
The Pennsylvania Department of State shared more about the process.
"DOJ monitors are not legally entitled to any greater access to polling places than members of the general public and we encourage them to coordinate with local election offices where they will be present to ensure that their activities do not disrupt the voting process," the Pennsylvania Department of State said in a statement.
Here's some more on the commonwealth's Election Code that the Pennsylvania Department of State shared with us:
Additionally, state and federal laws strictly limit military and law enforcement presence at polling places. The Pennsylvania Constitution prohibits the military from infringing on the right to vote in an election, and the Pennsylvania Election Code prohibits police officers from being within 100 feet of a polling place — unless they are voting, serving a warrant, or prevent disturbances at the polling place that interfere with voting. Federal law includes similar protections and prohibits both voter intimidation and the deployment of military personnel to polling places.
Schmidt's office also pointed us to this fact check on poll watchers, which details what is and isn't allowed. Poll watchers must be registered ahead of time, and each party is only allowed two per election district — and only one poll watcher per candidate is allowed to be in a polling place at a time.
If any voter has concerns about who is allowed in their polling place or if they see something wrong, the nonpartisan Committee of Seventy says voters can call the Election Protection Hotline at 866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683) and report what's going on.
Philadelphia elections official says "don't be distracted" by monitors' arrival
In Philadelphia, elections are overseen by the Office of the City Commissioners. City Commissioner Omar Sabir told CBS News Philadelphia he wasn't worried.
"We have these monitors because of the Voting Rights Act. If they want to come, that's fine," Sabir said.
Sabir said election monitoring is routine, and that monitors visited the city in 2024 to assess language accessibility at polling places.
"I just don't want anyone to be distracted. Because I see the things on social media, as people hear this news, and then people are confused and they feel like they are intimidated, and then they don't want to come out to vote," Sabir said. "I've noticed that in many communities they think that they're going to get deported if they come out and vote. And I'm like, yo, if you are a United States citizen, you have the right to vote and I want that to be clear. ... You will have access, and you have three commissioners who are willing to give their life to ensure that every eligible Philadelphian has a right to vote."
