Michigan Raises Concerns After DOJ Monitors Question Poll Workers

Overview

• Michigan election officials contacted the Justice Department after reports that federal monitors in Dearborn and Flint asked poll workers about their training and requested copies of training materials.
• The DOJ's Michigan election monitor coordinator told state officials the behavior did not match the monitors' training and said the department would speak with monitors on the ground to remind them of permitted actions.
• Michigan law limits federal monitors to observing election procedures and bars them from questioning poll workers about training, handling election materials, or entering polling places without clerk permission.
• Seventy-one DOJ monitors were assigned across several Michigan cities and state officials said overall voting was running smoothly with only routine Election Day issues and some voluntary voter conversations outside polling places.
• The incidents feed into a larger national debate over a planned DOJ deployment of roughly 1,000 election monitors and could prompt closer state-level enforcement and clearer ground rules for future federal observers.