Congress Sending Election Monitors to Watch Two Tight U.S. House Races

As part of beefed-up monitoring across the country, North Carolina voters could see federal election observers at polling places in several counties on Election Day.

The State Board of Elections notified county elections officials on Friday that polling places in congressional districts 1 and 11 will have observers in place–likely trained U.S. House staff members sent by GOP members of a House committee with jurisdiction over federal elections, according to an email The Assembly obtained. 

Both are large districts with close U.S. House races.

In eastern N.C., incumbent Democrat Don Davis is trying to defeat Republican Laurie Buckhout in the 1st District. And in the West, Democrat Jamie Ager faces Republican state Rep. Jennifer Balkcom, the GOP’s replacement candidate after incumbent Chuck Edwards dropped out after a House Ethics Committee investigation. 

In the email, the state election board counseled county officials to “keep in mind that federal law provides very broad authority for these observers to have access to various locations involved in the administration of the election.”

That includes access to “any area in which a ballot is cast, processed, scanned, tabulated, canvassed, recounted, audited, or certified, including during pre- and post-election procedures,” the email states.

How many of these observers will be on the ground is not clear. That is also true of Department of Justice observers, whose deployment in Mecklenburg, Wake, and Alamance counties was previously reported to be part of the federal agency’s plan to send 1,000 monitors to locations nationwide. 

DOJ observers are more limited under state and federal law in where they can go and what they can do. In North Carolina, they usually must remain outside during voting. 

Watching the Watchers

Brooks Fuller, policy director for Common Cause North Carolina, says he’s optimistic that observers will simply see the state’s strong voting infrastructure. But his organization and others plan to watch the watchers and keep an eye out for other federal law enforcement agents, like those from the Drug Enforcement Administration or the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. 

“The greatest concern is voter intimidation,” Fuller said. He added that there is guidance from the state that “DOJ observers cannot be armed, and clear guidance that the federal government has no role at the polls.”

The state has a large coalition of non-profit groups that plan to monitor polling places and man hotlines for reports of voter intimidation. But Fuller doesn’t foresee DOJ election monitors, who traditionally have been career civil servants who uphold voting rights, will bring a challenge.

The midterm election comes days before the one-year anniversary of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers increasing their presence in Mecklenburg County and later other parts of the state as part of Operation Charlotte’s Web. 

Stefanía Arteaga, co-founder of the Charlotte-based Carolina Migrant Network, noted that she’s seen a lot of enthusiasm from young Latinos to get out and vote. Members of the network who keep watch for ICE activity in the community were able to get trained as poll observers, and  the network helped train poll observers to know how to be on the lookout for immigration enforcement.

Through online and in person know-your-rights training, and voting efforts, the network found ways to “be a bridge for immigrants who are fearful” during the election, she said.

Are Federal Observers Common at Elections?

Wisconsin Rep. Bryan Steil, a Republican and chairman of the Committee on House Administration, told Fox News last week that Republicans are deploying “dozens and dozens” of staff nationwide to ensure elections are fair, calling it the House’s most “robust” effort of its kind. 

The committee has a program that oversees districts where races are expected to be close, he noted. “The balance of power in the United States House of Representatives is at stake, and we want to make sure that we have eyes and ears on the ground in close races across the country.”

When it comes to the Department of Justice, the agency has sent federal employees to observe voting sites across the country since the 1970s to ensure federal laws like the Voting Rights Act and Help Americans Vote Act are upheld. 

Like non-governmental observers, they are there to monitor, but are not allowed to prevent individuals from voting or otherwise intervene. They are allowed to ask people entering or leaving the polling place about their experience, including whether they were able to cast a ballot and if they had any access issues.

The number of DOJ monitors this year are expected to far outnumber those who were previously sent. In 2024’s general election roughly 700 monitors were sent to 27 states, CBS News reported, and in the 2022 midterm DOJ sent 289 monitors.  

Voters may decline to answer questions from DOJ election monitors; persistent questioning is a form of intimidation, voting rights groups emphasize.

DOJ election monitors cannot be armed, are not allowed to interfere with a voter’s ability to cast a ballot, cannot direct elections officials, and cannot engage in political activity, including wearing political clothing.

Congressional observers have also monitored voting in North Carolina in the past, former state elections director Karen Brinson Bell told The Assembly. They can remain longer than DOJ teams, until after ballots are tabulated, canvassed, recounted, audited, or certified, according to federal law.

Federal election monitors have been accused of breaking with norms elsewhere in recent elections. In August, a pair of DOJ monitors in Cheyenne, Wyoming, asked to interview primary voters and inspect machines without advance notice, drawing  criticism from Republican Gov. Mark Gordon. “It was aggressive, unexpected, disruptive—certainly didn’t seem to show respect for the state,” Gordon told The New York Times.

Where Will Federal Observers Be Tuesday?

In Mecklenburg County, at least two DOJ elections observers could be outside any of the county’s 195 polling places, and are likely to move to different sites throughout the day, State Board of Elections spokesman Jason Tyson told The Assembly.

In Wake, the DOJ is expected to send five election monitors, according to Fuller, who  said coalition members received that information from the county. He did not know which polling sites are likely destinations.

The DOJ also alerted Alamance County that it was sending observers, but a department email shared with The Assembly did not specify where.

The Election Protection Hotline is among the national efforts to track any questionable behavior by monitors. Anyone who observes concerning actions can call its hotline at 866-OUR-VOTE or 888-VE-Y-VOTA. That includes:

• Attempting to verify if a voter is registered or a U.S. citizen, or asking about prior convictions
• Politically supporting a specific candidate through speech or clothing
• Attempting to influence poll workers or election officials

The FBI is also asking people to report any voting irregularities they see to their local field office. And the State Board of Elections has encouraged poll workers who observe interference to file an incident report, which would be processed and shared with investigators.