The U.S. Department of Justice will again deploy federal election monitors to polling locations in Manchester and Nashua on Election Day, the department notified New Hampshire officials in an email earlier this week.
what the monitors will do
A prosecutor in the Civil Rights Division wrote to Brendon O’Donnell, New Hampshire’s deputy secretary of state, that the monitors are there only to observe and record what they see. The message said federal observers “do not intrude or interfere in any way in the voting process.”
“Our monitors only observe and take notes,” a prosecutor in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice wrote to Brendon O’Donnell, New Hampshire’s deputy secretary of state.
The department said monitors will be in plain clothes, will not carry firearms and are instructed not to talk with voters inside polling locations. Federal officials do not have any special authority to cross beyond the guardrail that separates the public observation area from where ballots are cast, the department added.
local context and previous visits
Election officials in Manchester and Nashua — the state’s two largest cities — were informed by the Justice Department, and the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s office was also notified. Federal monitors visited polling places in both cities during the state primary in September; officials reported no issues during those visits.
New Hampshire law and local practice already allow members of the public to observe certain election activities, such as the registration of new voters and the tabulation of results, provided observers remain behind the guardrail. In addition to federal observers, New Hampshire’s attorney general is planning to place more than 50 state prosecutors into polling locations on Election Day, and political parties and advocacy groups train volunteers to visit polling places as well.
national scale and department statement
The Justice Department said the planned deployment this year will be its largest monitoring effort in department history: the department expects to have more than 1,000 observers spread across the country, according to Harmeet Dhillon, who heads the Civil Rights Division.
- Locations: Manchester and Nashua polling places
- Observers: plainclothes federal monitors, instructed not to speak with voters or carry firearms
- State action: New Hampshire Attorney General’s office plans to send more than 50 prosecutors into polling places
| Entity | Planned presence |
|---|---|
| U.S. Department of Justice | Monitors in Manchester and Nashua; part of a nationwide effort of >1,000 observers |
| New Hampshire Attorney General | More than 50 state prosecutors in polling locations |
Local election officials and town clerks are the authorities responsible for administering polling places on Election Day. The Justice Department emphasized that its role is observational. During the September primary, federal monitors visited multiple polling locations in both Manchester and Nashua without reported incidents.
Officials from the Secretary of State’s office and Manchester and Nashua election administrators acknowledged receiving the department’s email but did not announce additional operational changes tied to the federal monitoring plan.
