It’s a contest between federal might and a state’s right as we head into the waning hours of the 2024 election. The Department of Justice announced that it would be sending lawyers out to 86 polling locations in 27 states to monitor them on Tuesday.
But some of those states are pushing back, including Missouri, which filed suit against the DOJ on Monday challenging the feds’ right to have monitors in place.
Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft on Monday filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department in an attempt to prevent federal officials from monitoring polling locations in St. Louis on Election Day.
Ashcroft in a statement accused the Justice Department of “attempting to illegally interfere in Missouri’s elections” after the DOJ announced that it would oversee polling locations in in St. Louis, one of 86 jurisdictions in 27 states that the department will monitor on Election Day “for compliance with federal civil rights laws in elections,” according to a DOJ announcement issued on Nov. 1.
“The law clearly and specifically limits who may be in polling places and this action by the DOJ is not allowed,” Ashcroft said.
“The secretary of state’s office has full confidence in our election authorities. Voting has been underway for several weeks and we are ready for Election Day. I want to personally thank all 116 local election authorities and the thousands of poll workers across Missouri who make our elections safe, secure and credible,” he added.
Missouri isn’t the only state raising objections to the DOJ monitoring announcement. Both Texas and Florida have taken issue with the practice as well.
In a letter to the Justice Department on Friday, Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson said wrote that “Texas law is clear: Justice Department monitors are not permitted inside polling places where ballots are being cast or a central counting station where ballots are being counted.”
“Texas has a robust processes and procedures in place to ensure that eligible voters may participate in a free and fair election,” Nelson wrote.
In a similar letter Friday, Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd told the Justice Department that Florida law lists who is allowed inside the state’s polling places and that Justice Department officials are not included. Byrd said that Florida is sending its own monitors to the four jurisdictions the Justice Department plans to send staff to and they will “ensure there is no interference with the voting process.”
The complaint, brought by Ashcroft and Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, Assistant U.S. Attorney General Kristen Clarke, and the DOJ, and filed in the Eastern District of Missouri, lays out the crux of the issue in the first paragraph:
For the second election cycle in a row, the Department of Justice, at the 11th hour, has announced an intent to displace state election authorities. Absent exceedingly clear federal authority, the States “keep for themselves … the power to regulate elections.” Shelby Cnty., Ala. v. Holder, 570, U.S. 529, 543 (2013) (cleaned up). To secure elections, Missouri exercised that traditional authority by enacting a law that strictly limits who, besides voters, can be present in a polling location. Poll monitors employed by DOJ are not on that list. Yet without specifically citing any federal authority authorizing its actions, DOJ announced on Friday November 1 its intent to displace Missouri law and place unauthorized poll monitors in polling locations in the City of St. Louis.
As alluded to in the complaint, this isn’t the first set-to between the state and the DOJ. In 2022, a similar scenario unfolded ahead of the mid-term elections.
Feds Threaten ‘Oversight’ in at Least One Missouri County on Election Day
The suit asks the court to declare the DOJ’s proposed actions as “arbitrary and capricious, or otherwise contrary to the law” and to enjoin the DOJ from taking the proposed actions.
Bailey issued a statement on X/Twitter regarding the suit:
🚨BREAKING: I filed suit against the Biden-Harris DOJ for sending unauthorized poll monitors to Missouri polling locations.
The law is clear that @KamalaHarris can’t just send unvetted individuals into our polling places.
It’s illegal and undermines trust in our elections.
— Attorney General Andrew Bailey (@AGAndrewBailey) November 4, 2024
BREAKING: I filed suit against the Biden-Harris DOJ for sending unauthorized poll monitors to Missouri polling locations.
The law is clear that @KamalaHarris can’t just send unvetted individuals into our polling places.
It’s illegal and undermines trust in our elections.
A hearing was set for Monday evening before U.S. District Judge Sarah Pitlyk (a Trump appointee), who presumably will rule on the matter sometime Monday evening. RedState will continue to monitor the matter and provide updates as they become available.
