WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice will be sending out personnel Tuesday to monitor polling places in 28 states, including to locations in Brooklyn, Queens and New Jersey’s Middlesex County.
People vote at the polling station at Our Lady of The Holy Church in the Sun Valley’s Latino district on Nov. 6, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. (JOE KLAMAR/AFP/Getty Images)
The more than 500 staffers deployed by the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division will work to enforce “the federal voting rights laws the protect the rights of all citizens to access the ballot on Election Day,” the federal agency announced Monday. These officials will ensure that polling places are complying with federal rules and that all those who want to vote can do so.
These federal observers will be spread among 28 states — including places in the tri-state area. On its list the DOJ included Brooklyn, Queens and New Jersey’s Middlesex County.
The department also said it would monitor polling places in New York’s Orange County and seven Connecticut towns: East Hartford, Farmington, Hartford, Middletown, New Britain, Newington and West Hartford.
“The bedrock of our democracy is the right to vote,” Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in a statement. “Our personnel will perform these duties impartially, with one goal in mind: to see to it that every eligible voter can participate in our elections to the full extent that federal law provides.”
Anyone who wants to report a possible violation of any voting laws can do so by calling 1-800-253-3931 or 202-307-2767, or emailing voting.section@usdoj.gov. You can also fill out a complaint for on the DOJ’s website at www.justice.gov./crt.votercomplaint.
