US Department of Justice Sending Personnel to Ohio to Safeguard Polling Locations

OHIO - The US Department of Justice (DOJ) will send personnel to safeguard polling locations in Cuyahoga, Franklin and Hamilton Counties on Nov. 8 for the general election. Sending monitors to Ohio is part of a DOJ plan to deploy 500 personnel to 67 jurisdictions in 28 states.

While the decision to send these poll monitors is fairly typical, it does follow the controversial decision by the Ohio 6th Circuit Court of Appeals to strike down a federal judge's decision on new voter-intimidation laws. Those laws would have prevented people from verbally harassing voters and making it more difficult for voters to reach polling places.

“The bedrock of our democracy is the right to vote, and the Department of Justice works tirelessly to uphold that right not only on Election Day, but every day,” U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in a prepared statement. “On Election Day itself, lawyers in the Civil Rights Division’s Voting Section will staff a hotline starting in the early hours of the morning, and just as we have sent election monitors in prior elections, we will continue to have a robust election monitors program in place on election day."

No specifics were offered as to the places targeted for monitoring, save to say that the focus will be at sites where "..."there are concerns about racial discrimination in the voting process; other times monitoring is done to ensure compliance with bilingual election procedures."

A slew of voter intimidation cases have been decided in crucial swing states over the past week. States impacted by those decisions include: Nevada, Pennsylvania and Texas.

"The department will gather information on, among other things, whether voters are subject to different voting qualifications or procedures on the basis of race, color or membership in a language minority group; whether jurisdictions are complying with the minority language provisions of the Voting Rights Act; whether jurisdictions permit voters to receive assistance by a person of his or her choice if the voter is blind, has a disability or is unable to read or write; whether jurisdictions provide polling locations and voting systems allowing voters with disabilities to cast a private and independent ballot; whether jurisdictions comply with the voter registration list requirements of the National Voter Registration Act; and whether jurisdictions comply with the provisional ballot requirements of the Help America Vote Act."

To further assist in such inquiries, the DOJ will deploy Spanish-speaking monitors as well as those fluent in Asian and Native American languages, officials said. Contact with local election officials will be maintained throughout the process, officials added.

During their monitoring, Civil Rights Division staff members will be available by telephone to receive complaints related to possible violations of the federal voting rights laws, official said. The toll-free number to call with complaints is 1-800-253-3931 or 202-307-2767 or TTY 202-305-0082). Voters also can report complaints by fax to 202-307-3961, by email to voting.section@usdoj.gov0r via the department’s website: www.justice.gov/crt/votercomplaint.

The 67 jurisdictions the DOJ will monitor are:

• Bethel Census Area, Alaska;
• Dillingham Census Area, Alaska;
• Kusilvak Census Area, Alaska;
• Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska;
• Maricopa County, Arizona;
• Navajo County, Arizona;
• Alameda County, California;
• Napa County, California;
• Siskiyou County, California;
• East Hartford, Connecticut;
• Farmington, Connecticut;
• Hartford, Connecticut;
• Middletown, Connecticut;
• New Britain, Connecticut;
• Newington, Connecticut;
• West Hartford, Connecticut;
• Hillsborough County, Florida;
• Lee County, Florida;
• Miami-Dade County, Florida;
• Orange County, Florida;
• Palm Beach County, Florida;
• Fulton County, Georgia;
• Gwinnett County, Georgia;
• Hancock County, Georgia;
• Chicago, Illinois;
• Cook County, Illinois;
• Finney County, Kansas;
• Orleans Parish, Louisiana;
• Quincy, Massachusetts;
• Dearborn Heights, Michigan;
• Detroit, Michigan;
• Hamtramck, Michigan;
• St. Louis, Missouri;
• Douglas County, Nebraska;
• Mineral County, Nevada;
• Washoe County, Nevada;
• Middlesex County, New Jersey;
• Cibola County, New Mexico;
• Kings County, New York;
• Orange County, New York;
• Queens County, New York;
• Cumberland County, North Carolina;
• Forsyth County, North Carolina;
• Mecklenburg County, North Carolina;
• Robeson County, North Carolina;
• Wake County, North Carolina;
• Benson County, North Dakota;
• Rolette County, North Dakota;
• Cuyahoga County, Ohio;
• Franklin County, Ohio;
• Hamilton County, Ohio;
• Allegheny County, Pennsylvania;
• Lehigh County, Pennsylvania;
• Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania;
• Pawtucket, Rhode Island;
• Providence, Rhode Island;
• Bennett County, South Dakota;
• Jackson County, South Dakota;
• Oglala Lakota County, South Dakota;
• Shelby County, Tennessee;
• Dallas County, Texas;
• Harris County, Texas;
• Waller County, Texas;
• San Juan County, Utah;
• Fairfax County, Virginia;
• Prince William County, Virginia, and
• Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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