Justice Department sending election monitors to Bowie County

Bowie County is one of seven Texas counties where the U.S. Department of Justice said it intends to send federal election monitors or observers for Tuesday’s general election, part of what the department called the largest monitoring effort in its history.

The department announced Tuesday morning that about 1,000 monitors and observers are being deployed and, for the first time, to all 50 states, according to a Justice Department news release. The effort is coordinated by the Civil Rights Division and includes division staff, personnel from U.S. attorney’s offices and other DOJ components, and federal observers from the Office of Personnel Management.

The other Texas counties on the list are Bexar, Dallas, Harris, Waller, Blanco and Nueces. In Arkansas, the department listed only Pulaski and Washington counties, meaning Miller County is not among the jurisdictions named. Muskogee, Tulsa and Oklahoma counties were listed in Oklahoma.

Bowie County Elections Administrator Pat McCoy said the Justice Department contacted his office about two weeks ago and that at least two monitors will be reviewing locations in the county. His office had no contact with DOJ personnel Tuesday, but “we are aware they are present,” he told TXKtoday.

McCoy said the county asked the department why it was chosen. “They selected the larger counties, and the smaller counties were simply the luck of the draw,” he said. “Nothing about this should be taken as a sign of a problem in Bowie County.”

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“DOJ monitors are required to stay outside our 100-foot no-electioneering markers,” McCoy said.

“Election integrity has been one of the top priorities for this Administration and this Division,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Civil Rights Division said in the release. “I am very proud we are deploying the largest monitoring effort in DOJ history, and pursuing transparency for elections in an assertive and nondiscriminatory manner.”

According to the department, monitors will check for compliance with federal voting rights laws enforced by the Civil Rights Division, including the Voting Rights Act, the National Voter Registration Act, the Help America Vote Act, the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act. The division’s Criminal Section enforces federal laws against voter intimidation and voter suppression based on race, color, national origin or religion. Division personnel will stay in contact with state and local election officials throughout Election Day, the release said.

The department’s monitoring footprint is far larger than in recent elections. During the 2022 midterms, the Justice Department sent monitors to 64 jurisdictions in 24 states, States Newsroom reported last week, when the department said it would not release the list of locations until Election Day.

Pushback in Arkansas and Texas

Election officials in both Arkansas counties on the list have voted to keep the federal monitors out of polling places. The Washington County Election Commission voted unanimously Oct. 26 to bar them, and the Pulaski County Election Commission followed with a 2-1 vote Oct. 29, the Arkansas Advocate reported. Washington County commissioners cited the short notice and the department’s failure to explain why the county was chosen. The department notified both counties Oct. 20.

Pulaski County Clerk Terri Hollingsworth raised the same concerns, and she and others who spoke at that meeting said the monitors’ presence could intimidate voters. Commissioner Steve Harrelson, the panel’s lone Democrat, called it a state-versus-federal issue and said he believed the effort was “designed to hinder turnout even further” in a state that ranks last in voter turnout, according to the Advocate.

Commissioner Marianne Harrington, a Republican, cast the lone vote to allow the monitors, saying that turning them away “invites public skepticism.” “These DOJ folks are not coming to interfere, touch ballots or … poll workers. They are here to check basic federal compliance,” she told the commission, according to Little Rock Public Radio. More Pulaski County residents at the meeting spoke in favor of the monitors than against them, the Advocate reported.

Under Arkansas law, the monitors can still observe from outside the 100-foot boundary around polling places, the same limit that applies to electioneering. Pulaski County’s election coordinator said the monitors would be in plain clothes and stationed outside that line.

Texas law already keeps federal monitors outside. In 2024, when the Biden administration sent monitors to Texas, Secretary of State Jane Nelson told the Justice Department that federal monitors are not among the people allowed inside Texas polling places or central counting stations, The Texas Tribune reported. This year, the Harris County Clerk’s Office said Texas law and state guidance do not allow the monitors inside polling places, the early voting ballot board or central counting stations. It said they may stand outside the 100-foot boundary and approach voters as they leave, and that voters do not have to answer their questions, KPRC reported.

The NAACP has sued the Justice Department for records about the monitoring program. A federal judge denied the group’s request for an emergency order to produce the records, and the lawsuit is pending, States Newsroom reported.

How to report problems

Voters with questions or complaints about federal voting rights laws can call the Justice Department’s election hotline at 1-800-253-3931, email [email protected] or file a complaint at civilrights.justice.gov/report. Questions about disability access can go to the ADA hotline at 1-800-514-0301 or 1-833-610-1264 (TTY).

The department said problems at a polling place should first be reported to local election officials, including those working at the polling place. Violence, threats of violence or intimidation at a polling place should be reported to local police immediately by calling 911, and then to the department.

Polls close at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Bowie County. “Even with the weather, turnout has been good,” McCoy said. “We expect heavier turnout as the day goes on, so vote as soon as you can.”