Texas tells U.S. Justice Department that federal election monitors aren’t allowed in polling places

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Texas’ top elections official told the U.S. Department of Justice on Friday its election monitors aren’t permitted in Texas polling places after the agency announced plans to dispatch monitors to eight Texas counties on Election Day to ensure compliance with federal voting rights laws.

The Justice Department regularly sends monitors across the country to keep an eye out for potential voting rights violations during major elections. The agency said monitors would be on the ground in 86 jurisdictions in 27 states — including Atascosa, Bexar, Dallas, Frio, Harris, Hays, Palo Pinto and Waller counties.

Late Friday evening, Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson told the federal agency that its election monitors aren’t among those allowed inside Texas polling places or in central locations where ballots are counted under state law.

“Rest assured that Texas has robust processes and procedures in place to ensure that eligible voters may participate in a free and fair election,” Nelson wrote to a DOJ official Friday evening.

For decades, the Justice Department has dispersed election monitors across the country to observe procedures in polling sites and at places where ballots are counted. That was a power granted to the federal government under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which outlawed discriminatory voting practices and sought to equalize voting access. After the U.S. Supreme Court gutted parts of the law years ago, the agency now must get permission from state and local jurisdictions to be present or get a court order.

Officials in Florida and Missouri barred federal election monitors in 2022 — and this year, Arkansas officials told ABC News they wouldn’t be allowed there.

The agency didn’t say Friday why it picked those eight Texas counties — though it will send monitors to as many jurisdictions in Massachusetts. The Justice Department has regularly dispatched monitors to Texas — including in 2022, when those monitors were sent to Dallas, Harris and Waller counties. A group of Texas Democrats at the local, state and federal level had called on the federal agency in September to send election monitors to the state’s five most populous counties — though it ultimately planned to send monitors to three of them.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the Texas Secretary of State’s office told ABC News this week that state election inspectors would be sent to “various locations” throughout Texas.

Election Day is Tuesday.

Disclosure: Texas Secretary of State 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.