State election officials are expecting U.S. Department of Justice election monitors in at least two Massachusetts cities.
“Our understanding is that DOJ monitors are expected in Boston and Lowell, as they were in the primary,” Deb O’Malley, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State William Galvin, told the News Service. “It’s typical for DOJ monitors to go to both cities, due to their complex language requirements. Lowell has the state’s only trilingual ballot, while Boston offers three different versions of bilingual ballots.”
State Affairs/Howey Politics Indiana reported this week that the Department of Justice plans to send elections monitors to Marion and Lake counties there as well. Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith welcomed the planned monitoring.
“I fully support President Trump using the DOJ to help monitor local elections for compliance,” Beckwith wrote on social media. “With so much at stake, it’s imperative only legal citizens of our country are allowed to help decide the future of our country.”
U.S. Rep. Andre Carson, an Indiana Democrat, questioned the selection of the two counties on X.
“Out of 92 counties in Indiana, [President Donald] Trump’s DOJ has chosen 2 counties with the largest populations of Democratic voters and Black and Hispanic voters to subject to ‘election monitoring,’” Carson wrote. “It’s no coincidence. It’s also no coincidence that it comes just weeks before an election, when Trump has record low poll numbers. It follows multiple illegal attempts to change election procedures for his benefit, from a president who still maintains the 2020 election was stolen.”
In July, when the DOJ said it would be sending monitors to Boston and New Bedford for the Sept. 1 primaries, Gov. Maura Healey said it was “about intimidation” and trying to scare voters away.
Assistant U.S. Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon said in a video posted on X, “This is something that DOJ does routinely.”
Dhillon added, “We’re sending the monitors into cities and counties where there might have been some problems in the recent elections.”
The state investigated Boston’s election department after several city polling locations ran out of ballots during the 2024 election.
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