Texas, Missouri judges deny requests to block DOJ from sending poll monitors
The U.S. courts have refused to allow the Republican-led states Missouri and Texas to prevent the federal government from sending attorneys to their states on Election Day in order to monitor compliance with federal voter rights laws.
The U.S. Justice Department has said that it will send out staff to monitor voting places in both states, just as it does regularly during national elections.
Federal Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, in an order issued early Tuesday morning by the DOJ, ordered that the DOJ confirm “no observers will be present at polling places in Texas” but denied the restraining orders requested by the state.
In the ruling, Kacsmaryk – a Trump appointee – stated that “the Court cannot issue an interim restraining orders without clarification of the difference between’monitoring and observing’ just before a consequential electoral event.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said earlier that sending observers “violates the constitutional authority of States to run free, fair and democratic elections.”
The lawsuit claimed that federal officials were not included in the list of people who could be present at voting stations or central counting stations under Texas law.
District Judge Sarah Pitlyk, in Missouri, also denied the state’s request to temporarily halt the order. She said late Monday that “the harms anticipated by Missouri are speculative.”
Missouri’s lawsuit accused the Justice Department that it had made a plan at 11th hour to “displace” state election authorities by sending poll monitors to St. Louis on Tuesday.
At a Monday night hearing, the counsel for DOJ stated that two election monitors had been sent to Missouri to monitor a polling station in St. Louis.
In January 2021, the Justice Department and St. Louis Polling Place reached an agreement over concerns regarding architectural barriers and other issues that could have prevented people with disabilities from voting.
In order to comply with the settlement, the Board of Election Commissioners of the city agreed to let the Justice Department monitor the polling places on Election Day. This included monitoring the polling places on Election Day.
The settlement was finalized at the end of the Trump Administration when Eric Dreiband served as Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division.
The Justice Department refused to comment on these two lawsuits.
Former Republican President Donald Trump continues to claim falsely that his defeat in the 2020 U.S. Presidential election was due to widespread fraud. He faces Democratic Vice-President Kamala Harris on Tuesday. He has encouraged his supporters to attend polling stations to look for possible fraud.
The Justice Department is sending personnel to counties in Texas and Massachusetts as well as South Dakota, New Jersey, Alaska, South Dakota and Alaska.
Missouri and Texas are not considered to be among the seven battleground States.
The Justice Department enforces a number of federal voting laws. For example, one law requires that states accommodate voters with disabilities. Another requires that states allow U.S. military personnel and citizens who live overseas to cast absentee votes in federal elections.
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