Iowa Secretary of State confirms DOJ election monitors will be in Iowa

Election monitors for the U.S. Department of Justice will be deployed to some Iowa polling locations on Election Day, Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate confirmed Wednesday.

The Justice Department regularly deploys monitors to election sites nationwide. Under President Joe Biden, monitors were sent to 64 jurisdictions across 24 states to observe the 2022 elections, but the monitoring program has expanded significantly under President Donald Trump. As DOJ spokesperson Kiersten Pels announced Monday, the department intends to deploy 1,000 monitors across all 50 states.

This will include Iowa polling locations. It is still unknown which specific locations will have monitors, and the DOJ said Monday the full list of locations will not be released until Election Day, Nov. 3.

At a news conference at the State Emergency Operations Center in Johnston on Wednesday, Pate confirmed monitors are expected to be in Iowa. He did not share further details on locations, but said the monitors will not have an impact on Iowans’ ability to vote or the election process.

“They are there strictly as a monitor,” Pate said. “They can (have) no contact with our election workers, nor do they consult or advise or have any direct impact in that respect at all. They will let the county auditors know if they’re coming in. They will (send) to those county auditors their credentials to make sure, but they’re not in uniform, and they’re not imposing themselves on the process in any manner.”

The event was a chance for members of the Iowa Election Security Team — which includes the Secretary of State’s office as well as the Iowa National Guard and state departments of Public Safety, Homeland Security and Emergency Management — to assure voters of the integrity of the upcoming election and talk about the steps taken to address cybersecurity and other potential threats.

While Pate answered questions about DOJ monitors, he also emphasized Iowa’s “strong” election system, saying, “when you cast your ballot in the upcoming general election, it will be counted fairly, accurately and securely,” and he noted that Iowans have expressed “high confidence in our election results” in recent years.

He expressed concerns that focusing on the DOJ monitors could discourage people from voting.

“I just want to underscore again — this is what can cause disenfranchising of voters,” Pate said. “Because this kind of stuff goes out, and then people think ‘big brother’ is trying to impact them in their voting opportunities.”

Pate said the DOJ is choosing to exercise their ability to monitor elections “for certain civil rights issues, and they have certain criteria they have to follow.” He said the federal department is working with his office as well as with county auditors to ensure they are following guidelines, and said the monitors plan to submit reports after the election that focus on disability issues and provisional ballots.

Pate’s opponent in the 2026 election, Democrat Ryan Peterman, who is running for Iowa Secretary of State, said there were reasons for Iowans to be concerned about the presence of DOJ monitors at polling places.

“The Department of Justice has a longstanding role in protecting voting rights, most notably the use of poll observers in the 1960s to ensure states were abiding by the Voting Rights Act,” Peterman said in a statement. “However, the current leadership has made numerous representations that have turned out not to be factual about elections this year and we must ensure the observers here in Iowa do not interfere with our election workers and voters.”

Peterman said Pate “owes Iowans answers” about the federal monitors.

“Where in Iowa are these federal monitors going to be deployed? Why are they being sent here? What is the Secretary of State doing to ensure they do not interfere with Iowa voters?” Peterman said. “At this moment, it is critical that we have a Secretary of State who is honest and transparent with voters.”

But Pate said this response to the DOJ monitors could promote distrust in the state’s election process and in sources of information, such as the his own office, among voters who are trying to find reliable voting information.

“It’s worth pointing out that this job is about being nonpartisan and wearing a referee jersey,” Pate said in a statement. “Political statements like this are why this office continually urges voters to turn to trusted sources for election information — the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office and Iowa’s 99 county auditors.”

Pate emphasized federal election observers will be required to “follow the same rules as every other election observer and poll watcher – including the Democratic and Republican observers regularly sent by the parties, candidates, and the U.S. Congress. They are simply observers, dressed in plain clothes, and are not permitted to interfere with the voting process in any way.”