Bernalillo County expecting 10 USDOJ monitors on Election Day

The United States Department of Justice will send approximately 10 monitors to polling sites in New Mexico’s most populous county on Election Day, county officials told Source NM on Thursday, amid the federal government’s recently announced expansion of its nationwide election monitoring effort. 

The USDOJ announced this week that it intends to send 1,000 election monitors to polling locations in all 50 states on Nov. 3, marking an expansion of its previous election monitoring efforts. But federal officials declined to say which polling locations they’ll target for the expanded effort.

Bernalillo County officials told Source NM on Thursday that the USDOJ informed the county approximately three weeks ago it would be sending monitors, but did not specify why they had selected the county.

In an emailed statement, Bernalillo County Clerk Michelle Kavanaugh noted that the USDOJ has previously deployed monitors to the county and said local officials are “prepared for their arrival” this year.

“This is not unusual for us, and we’ve accommodated DOJ monitors in previous elections without incident,” she said. 

Trump’s DOJ sends 1,000 election monitors to 50 states; locations not yet disclosed

The USDOJ’s expanded monitoring effort has sparked fears of federal meddling in elections across the country during a mid-term election that will determine the balance of power in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate. 

Other New Mexico locations where  federal monitors may show up remains  unclear. Lindsey Bachman, the secretary of state’s communications, legislative and executive affairs director, told Source NM on Thursday that her office has been made aware only of their presence in Bernalillo County, but the USDOJ has reportedly reached out directly to county clerks in other states. 

Doña Ana County Clerk Amanda López Askin told Source NM on Thursday in a text message that she has not heard from the USDOJ about monitors in the state’s second-most-populous county. The county will also likely process the largest percentage of the votes cast in the closely watched 2nd Congressional District race between incumbent U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez (D-N.M.) and Republican challenger Greg Cunningham. 

During the last mid-term election in 2022, former President Joe Biden’s USDOJ sent 289 monitors to 24 states, including Bernalillo County and San Juan County in New Mexico. San Juan County officials did not immediately respond to Source NM’s request for comment Thursday about whether they expect the federal government’s presence at their polling sites again, as much of the county recovers from recent flooding. 

Fears of federal interference in the state’s elections prompted state lawmakers this session to pass Senate Bill 264, which aims to prevent intimidation by federal immigration and others in local elections. The Secretary of State and Attorney General’s Office earlier this month issued a voter advisory that underscored voters’ rights to cast ballots with interference.

The prospect of federal interference has also prompted third party groups and political parties to step up their presence at polling sites across the country.

In New Mexico, the Secretary of State’s Office has credentialed 571 watchers from six different organizations to monitor elections this year. Bachman could not immediately say how that number compares to previous years.

But Carmen Lopez, co-lead for Observe New Mexico Elections, which employs the majority of the state’s election watchers, told Source NM that the group has nearly twice as many volunteer observers this cycle than the 2024 general election. Approximately 325 observers affiliated with her group are approved this year, compared with about 170 in 2024, she said.

“We had more interest in our observation program this year, partly because more people know about it, and also because people want to participate,” she said. “There are all of these other observation efforts, both inside the polls and outside the polls, that have garnered a lot of interest.”

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The other groups that the Secretary of State’s Office has approved for election observation, Bachman said, are Disability Rights New Mexico, League of Women Voters of New Mexico and Southern New Mexico, Taos United Indivisible and Land of Action. 

Land of Action is a recently formed, nonpartisan civic association and hub for progressive groups throughout the state. Executive director Heidi Li Feldman told Source NM on Thursday that her group of approximately 80 watchers will fan out primarily to rural counties like San Juan, Grant, Luna, Hidalgo, Otero and Rio Arriba counties. 

Li Feldman said the volunteers are on alert for federal monitors on Election Day, especially since the USDOJ has not said where they will be. 

“Since no one really knows, we’ve trained our watchers to be alert to people who are agents, DOJ monitors,” she said, “and to be extra sensitive to whether they are following New Mexico state law about what law enforcement, federal or otherwise, may and may not do at the polls.”