The Justice Department sent observers during the state’s primary election this month. A local official said the activities exceeded their authority.
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The governor of Wyoming voiced concern this week about “aggressive” and “irregular” conduct by election monitors sent by the Justice Department during the state’s primary election.
A local elections official also voiced profound concerns about the monitors’ behavior, which she said went beyond their purview, including a request to examine voting machines. President Donald Trump and some of his allies have fixated on these machines, asserting without evidence that they are unreliable, but examining them is not part of the monitors’ duties.
The Justice Department sent two attorneys to Laramie County, the state’s most populous, as part of its “monitoring initiative.”
The agency has long sent federal monitors to observe elections, but Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon (R) said their behavior during the Aug. 18 primary was inappropriate.
He told the state canvassing board this week that he had asked the Wyoming attorney general to investigate.
“The behavior of the observers was a bit aggressive … it was just irregular,” the governor said at the Wednesday meeting. “Their behavior seems to exceed what the authority that Congress had given them was.”
He said the monitors said they were examining compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act and civil rights law.
“I feel very strongly about federal government coming in and taking our guns,” Gordon said. “I don’t like that, and I don’t like the federal government coming in and taking our votes, either.”
Gordon said that to his knowledge, the local U.S. attorney was unaware of the deployment this month. A spokesperson for U.S. Attorney for Wyoming Darin D. Smith did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Justice Department official in Washington said Smith was notified.
The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division routinely sends attorneys and staff to polling places to assess compliance with federal voting laws, including the Voting Rights Act and the Americans With Disabilities Act. The department separately deploys federal observers, who have specific authority under the Voting Rights Act to enter polling and vote-counting sites in jurisdictions covered by federal court orders. The two monitors in Wyoming were Civil Rights Division attorneys, the agency said.
Historically, such monitors and federal intervention have been used to protect voting rights, especially for historically disenfranchised groups.
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But Democrats have raised concerns about how such monitors could be used in the upcoming election, given Trump’s false claims of election tampering and unsupported allegations of voter fraud. Some worry that Trump will use the machinery of the federal government to restrict votes or interfere if Republicans suffer losses in this fall’s midterm elections.
Trump has said Republicans should “nationalize the voting” and “take over the voting.” The Constitution gives states and Congress — not the president — authority over election administration.
Harmeet K. Dhillon, the assistant attorney general who leads the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said this month that the agency planned to deploy about 1,000 poll monitors to observe voting across the country on Election Day — a number she described as “historic” for a Republican administration.
She did not say where the monitors would be sent or how this year’s deployment would differ from previous ones. Concerns about the behavior of monitors in Wyoming were also voiced by Laramie County Clerk Debra Lee. She said in a written statement that two election monitors asked questions that appeared “outside the scope of federal voting rights laws.”
“They included questions about the nature, length, and timing of poll worker training. Monitors requested training guides, asked how our new election equipment was acquired, and wanted to examine our tabulators,” she said.
She said that the monitors also wanted to interview voters “to assess compliance with federal civil rights and voting rights law” but that she denied the request.
“We do not allow interviews to be conducted in polling places,” Lee said.
“This was a poorly managed exercise and one that showed complete disregard for our state laws and administration of our elections,” her statement said.
The Justice Department official in Washington, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss details of the incident, disputed some aspects of these claims.
The monitors in Cheyenne, the official said, asked election workers if they had handicap-accessible voting locations — a question the official described as “common” to ensure compliance with federal law. The Justice Department official insisted, contrary to the local official’s account, that the monitors did not ask to inspect any voting machines. The department did not answer whether the monitors requested training guides, asked how the equipment was acquired or sought to interview voters.
A Justice Department spokesperson pointed to a statement Smith’s office issued on Election Day. “Voters deserve absolute confidence that their ballots are secure and their voices are heard without interference,” Smith said. “We are working alongside local officials to ensure every lawful vote is protected.”
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