Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said the Justice Department will send federal monitors to primary election sites in Arizona, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Virginia to oversee compliance with voting rights laws.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
The Department of Justice will send federal election monitors to 15 jurisdictions in six states during the 2026 primary season, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon announced this week.
Dhillon said monitors from the DOJ Civil Rights Division will be deployed in Arizona, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Virginia as part of the department’s long-running oversight role in elections. The effort is intended to ensure compliance with federal voting laws, protect eligible voters’ access to the ballot, address potential language or disability access barriers and document any irregularities.
“In 2026, in this upcoming primary season, the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, as it has done for decades, is this year sending election monitors into 15 different jurisdictions in six states. And those states are Arizona, Michigan, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Virginia,” Dhillon said.
Dhillon said the department selected jurisdictions where officials believe issues may have occurred in recent election cycles.
“And we’re sending the monitors into cities and counties where there may have been some problems in the recent elections. And so this is something that DOJ does routinely,” she said.
The deployment falls between prior primary-season monitoring efforts, Dhillon said. She noted that the previous administration sent monitors to nine jurisdictions during the 2022 primaries and that DOJ monitored 27 jurisdictions during the 2024 election cycle.
“So this year, we’re kind of in the middle of that with our 15,” Dhillon said. “And what we hope to do here is increase voter confidence, make sure there are no language barriers or barriers to voting for Americans with disabilities, or, you know, sort of failure to make sure that the polling places are open correctly for the amount of time necessary, and that everyone has appropriate access to vote who should be allowed to vote.”
Dhillon said the effort is meant to strengthen confidence in election results.
“So this is an important goal that increases voter confidence,” she said.
The monitors will operate under the DOJ’s civil rights and voting law enforcement authority, Dhillon said, including the Help America Vote Act, the National Voter Registration Act, the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1960.
“Exercise of our oversight duty and our enforcement duty to enforce the Help America Vote Act, the National Voter Registration Act, the Voting Rights Act, a very important statute, and other civil rights statutes like the Civil Rights Act of 1960,” Dhillon said.
“So I’m proud to be helping organize this effort and send those monitors to help increase all citizens’ confidence in the outcome of our elections,” she added.
Dhillon also said the department expects a larger monitoring program for the general election.
“And stay tuned as we get towards the general election, where there’ll be an even more expanded program for vote monitors, as DOJ has done for decades in our great nation,” she said.
The announcement was highlighted in an X post showing Dhillon discussing the primary-season monitoring plan.
The DOJ is already preparing to send monitors into three Michigan cities: Detroit, Lansing and East Lansing. The broader six-state deployment also includes jurisdictions in Arizona, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Virginia.
Arizona has drawn national attention in recent years over election administration disputes, including Maricopa County issues that were examined during the 2020 and 2021 audits. New Hampshire’s Windham audit also raised concerns about election procedures, while Michigan cities and other jurisdictions listed for monitoring have faced scrutiny from election-integrity advocates over past practices.
The DOJ monitoring plan comes the same day the department sent letters nationwide warning election officials about potential criminal prosecution related to noncitizen voting. The letters were aimed at reminding officials of federal legal obligations as the department increases oversight ahead of the 2026 election cycle.
Federal monitors do not run local elections. Their role is to observe, document and ensure that polling places follow federal voting laws while eligible voters are able to cast ballots.
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