A Record 1,000 Justice Department Monitors Head to the Polls Today. In Minnesota's Two Biggest Counties, They Have to Stay 100 Feet Back

What's happening today. The Justice Department says it is sending election monitors to polling places in all 50 states for Tuesday's midterms. "We will be in all 50 states, including Minnesota, doing the routine election monitoring the department has done for decades," the department told KSTP, which reported the plan as about 1,000 monitors nationwide, the department's largest effort ever. That's roughly triple the number sent in the last midterm, Reuters reported. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who runs the department's Civil Rights Division, made the same claim herself:

Post: Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon (@AAGDhillon) on X, Oct. 23, 2026.

In the video she says the monitors will look for problems with "language access," "disability access" and "any voter intimidation," and that the department "may take legal action afterwards." A department spokesperson told Votebeat that the full list of places getting monitors would be released on Election Day.

Minnesota's answer. The department asked Hennepin County, home to Minneapolis, to let its staff inside polling places, as it had before the August primary. The county said no. "After consultation with our office, the Minnesota Secretary of State's Office, and others, Hennepin County denied the request," the Hennepin County Attorney's Office said Monday. It went on:

• "Monitors will not be permitted inside polling places but instead must remain outside a 100-foot boundary from the polling locations, in compliance with Minnesota law."
• "The monitors are expected to be DOJ staff in plainclothes and may attempt to interview voters as they leave the polling place. Participation in these interviews is entirely voluntary."
• "The Minnesota Attorney General's Office has stated plans to observe the DOJ monitoring teams."

"Both Hennepin and Ramsey County have declined the DOJ's request to allow these observers, as they can under the law," Secretary of State Steve Simon said at a briefing, FOX 9 reported. His office expects five to six two-person federal teams in Hennepin and four to five in Ramsey, all staying outside the line. Simon said his office and Attorney General Keith Ellison's will again send their own people to watch the federal teams. In August, Minnesota sent about 40 state employees, working in pairs, to follow the DOJ lawyers, according to Reuters.

Post: Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty (@HennepinAtty) on X, Nov. 2, 2026.

The law behind the 100-foot line. Minn. Stat. § 204C.06 says that, apart from election officials, people waiting to vote and exit pollsters, "an individual must not stand within 100 feet of the building in which a polling place is located." Inside, the law lists who may stay during voting hours: state, county and city election representatives, election judges, challengers and people voting or helping a voter. Federal monitors aren't on that list, which is why they need the county's permission.

Monitors vs. observers. These two words get mixed up, and the difference explains why counties can say no.

• Federal observers are a program written into the Voting Rights Act. Under 52 U.S.C. § 10305, the federal Office of Personnel Management assigns them, and they may "enter and attend at any place for holding an election." Since the Supreme Court's 2013 Shelby County ruling, the Justice Department says it sends them only where a federal court has ordered it (DOJ explainer).
• Election monitors, today's 1,000, are Justice Department staff the Civil Rights Division sends on its own, under the same page's description of its field monitoring. No statute gives them a right to walk into a polling place. A department spokesperson told Votebeat, "DOJ monitors are subject to state and local laws and rules pertaining to polling locations." Colorado, Indiana and Wyoming have also said monitors must keep a set distance from polling places, Votebeat reported.

A judge sets the ground rules. On Monday, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton in Washington denied the NAACP's emergency request to keep staff from the Bureau of Prisons, the ATF and the DEA out of the program (NAACP v. Blanche, order). He did it because of what DOJ promised in court. He ordered the department to make sure monitors "are indeed administrative or clerical personnel and not law enforcement officials, will not be in uniform or display any other insignia indicating their affiliation with a federal agency, will not be armed with a firearm, and will not have the power to effectuate arrests." Monitors must also "not talk with any voter inside the polling place" and may "only talk to voters outside the polling place after the voter has cast his or her ballot." DOJ had to file a report by 7 a.m. Eastern today on how it confirmed none of the monitors are law enforcement officers. If the NAACP believes the rules are broken today, the judge said he "will take immediate action."

Maine, framed as allegations. In Maine, DOJ plans to send monitors to Lewiston, Portland and South Portland, the Bangor Daily News reported. Separately, U.S. Attorney Andrew Benson's office confirmed it is reviewing security video of early voting at Lewiston City Hall after The Maine Wire, a conservative outlet, accused interpreters of coaching Somali American voters and, in some clips, filling out ballots. Those are allegations. The office has said only that the footage is under review, and it won't say whether it is investigating. The BDN notes that federal law lets a voter who needs help choose an assistant, including an interpreter. Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows told WGME that monitors "may not interact with voters, handle ballots or equipment or disrupt voting in any way," and that her office will "monitor their activities."