DOJ To Send Election Monitors To North Carolina

The U.S. Justice Department will monitor certain precincts in North Carolina on Election Day.

The Fayetteville Observer reported that the U.S. Justice Department will send monitors to Cumberland, Robeson and two other North Carolina counties “for reasons that have not been announced.”

“Chief judges in the precincts must allow these federal observers within the voting place,” said Kim Strach, the State Board of Elections’ executive director.

“It’s typically a team of attorneys and they’ll just randomly go to the different polling places on Election Day,” said Tim Tsujii, director of the Forsyth County Board of Elections, according to WGHP.

The Justice Department sending election monitors around the country isn’t new. It’s something the Justice Department has done for the past five decades to prevent intimidation and discrimination against voters, according to the Washington Post.

“In the past, we have…relied heavily on election observers, specially trained individuals who are authorized to enter polling locations and monitor the process to ensure that it lives up to its legal obligations,” said Attorney General Loretta Lynch. “Our ability to deploy them has been severely curtailed.”

More than 780 observers were sent to 23 states in 2012, the Washington Post reported.

But the Justice Department won’t be the only group sending monitors to North Carolina.

Several advocacy groups are planning to send more than 1,000 volunteers to monitor the election in North Carolina, reported the Associated Press.

“Our goal is to make sure that every voter who goes to cast a ballot can cast that ballot and that those votes are counted,” said Democracy North Carolina spokeswoman Jen Jones. “We don’t want voters discouraged by long lines or those who would seek to intimidate voters.”

Sources: Fayetteville Observer, Associated Press via Charlotte Observer, Washington Post, WGHP/ Photo Credit: Mark Buckawicki/Wikipedia