U.S. Justice Department will again have election monitors in Texas
Federal monitors will be on the ground in Harris, Dallas and Waller counties on Election Day as part of the department’s regular deployment for major elections.
Super Tuesday voting at the Metropolitan Multi Service Center near downtown Houston on Tuesday, March 3, 2020.
Credit:
Michael Stravato for The Texas Tribune
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The U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday it will send election monitors to three Texas counties — Harris, Dallas and Waller — to keep an eye on local compliance with federal voting rights laws on Election Day.
Monitors from the Justice Department are regularly deployed across the country for major elections, with Texas counties making the list for at least the past decade under both Democratic and Republican administrations. The three Texas counties are among 64 jurisdictions in 24 states that will have a federal presence Tuesday.
The announcement of the monitors comes ahead of an Election Day shrouded by increasing concerns over voter intimidation, though there have been few, if any, reports of major concern so far in Texas where nearly 5.5 million voters have already cast their ballots.
Voting FAQ: 2024 Elections
When is the next election? What dates do I need to know?
Election Day for the general election is November 5, and early voting will run from Oct. 21 to Nov. 1. The deadline to register to vote and/or change your voter registration address is Oct. 7. Applications to vote by mail must be received by your county of residence – not postmarked – by Oct. 25.
What’s on the ballot for the general election?
In addition to the president, eligible Texans have the opportunity to cast their ballots for many Texas officials running for office at the federal, state and local levels.
This includes representatives in the U.S. and Texas houses and the following elected offices:
-1 U.S Senator (Ted Cruz)
- 1 of 3 Railroad Commissioners
- 15 State Senators
- 7 State Board of Education members
- 3 members of the Texas Supreme Court
- 3 members of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
- 5 Chief Justices and various justices for Texas Courts of Appeals
Lower-level judges and local county offices will also appear on the ballot:
- Various district judges, including on criminal and family courts
- County Courts at Law
- Justices of the Peace
- District Attorneys
- County Attorneys
- Sheriffs
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You must be registered to vote in a Texas county by Oct. 7 to vote in the Nov. 5 presidential election. You can still register for other elections.
If you’re registered but didn’t update your address by the deadline, you may still be able to vote at your previous voting location or on a limited ballot. (Voters are typically assigned precincts based on where they live. In most major counties, voters can vote anywhere on Election Day, but some counties require you vote within your precinct. If that is the case, you may have to return to your previous precinct. See which counties allow countywide Election Day voting here. You can usually find your precinct listed on your voter registration certificate or on when checking your registration online.)
If you moved from one county to another, you may be able to vote on a ballot limited to the elections you would qualify to vote in at both locations, such as statewide races. However, limited ballots are only available during early voting. Find your county election official here and contact them to ask about or request a limited ballot.
What can I do if I have questions about voting?
You can contact your county elections official or call the Texas Secretary of State's helpline at 1-800-252-VOTE (8683). A coalition of voting rights groups is also helping voters navigate election concerns through the 866-OUR-VOTE (687-8683) voter-protection helpline. The coalition also has hotlines available for voters who speaker other languages or have accessibility needs.
For help in Spanish, call 888-VE-Y-VOTA or 888-839-8682.
For help in Asian languages, call 888-API-VOTE or 888-274-8683.
For help in Arabic, call 888-YALLA-US or 888-925-5287.
For help in American Sign Language through a video, call 301-818-VOTE or 301-818-8683.
For help from Disability Rights Texas, call 888-796-VOTE or 888-796-8683.
The department did not specify how it made its selections for monitoring, though Harris and Waller counties have made the list in the last four presidential and midterm elections. Harris County has recently been the site of electoral catastrophes such as the 2020 presidential primary when voters at a polling place on the Texas Southern University campus — one of the nation’s largest historically Black colleges — were left waiting six hours to cast their ballots.
Rural Waller County is home to Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black campus, where generations of students have been caught up in the long struggle for voting rights. The latest chapter of that struggle began in 2018 when a group of students sued the county over a lopsided early voting schedule that offered students — most of them Black — fewer opportunities to vote early than the county’s white residents. Following the suit, the county’s commissioner court extended hours at an on-campus polling place, though a federal judge ruled years later that the county had not discriminated against the students.
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Harris and Dallas are also the state’s largest and second-largest counties and home to large populations of Black and Latino voters.
The department has routinely dispatched monitors into the field since the passage of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, which was meant to equalize access to voting and outlaw discriminatory voting practices. Texas history is pockmarked by efforts to disenfranchise people of color, from the time of “white primaries” and poll taxes to more contemporary examples like the state’s original strict photo ID law, which lawmakers were forced to revise after a federal judge found it intentionally discriminated against Latino and Black voters who were less likely to have one of the seven forms of ID needed to vote.
The fleet of monitors generally includes lawyers from the department’s Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Offices as well as employees from the Office of Personnel Management, who are authorized to serve as monitors by federal court order. Voters can send complaints on possible violations of federal law to the DOJ through its website or by calling 800-253-3931. Polls open at 7 a.m. on Election Day.
Disclosure: Prairie View A&M University has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
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