By Jacob Knutson, Zachary Roth
When Harmeet Dhillon, the Department of Justice (DOJ) civil rights chief, announced that her agency would be sending election monitors to 15 jurisdictions in six states during the 2026 primaries, she was quick to note that previous Democratic administrations have likewise sent monitors to observe primaries.
It’s true that the DOJ’s election monitoring program has existed for decades, and administrations of both parties have deployed it.
But the Trump DOJ’s plan appears to have almost nothing in common with those efforts, which have typically been intended to protect voters, especially racial minorities, from intimidation and suppression at the polls. The new monitoring mission serves the opposite purpose: intimidating voters and creating barriers to the polls. It appears to be part of the Trump administration’s broader attempt to take control of American elections — despite the Constitution explicitly giving that power to the states.
