Georgia election 2026: Plans for federal monitors in 6 counties get mixed reviews

Election officials don’t seem too worried about dozens of election monitors in six Georgia counties, but that doesn’t mean nobody is.

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The presence of federal election observers is nothing new in Georgia, but the scale of this, more than a thousand nationwide, has some Democrats concerned.

This is happening even as the Atlanta-based Carter Center plans to send out election observers of its own.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced it plans to send monitors to six Georgia counties, four in metro Atlanta, along with Savannah/Chatham and Macon/Bibb, all Democratic strongholds.

Channel 2’s Richard Elliot spoke exclusively with Georgia Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock.

He expressed the same concerns that many Democrats have, that President Donald Trump’s DOJ may be up to no good.

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“And so we’ll be monitoring these monitors. If monitors are there to make sure that everybody has their voice and their vote, great,” Warnock said. “My concern is that they’re not trying to meddle with the election.”

But DOJ election monitors are nothing new. They’ve monitored Georgia elections and elections in other states for decades, just not to this size.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said he wasn’t concerned at all because he says Georgia elections are safe and secure.

“A monitor is a monitor. It’s the Department of Justice, and, you know, we have a transparent process, feel really good about it,” Raffensperger said.

Elliot reached out to Carter Center’s associate director of democracy Jonathan Stonestreet and asked about their monitors. They’ve monitored elections across the globe and will be here in Georgia at many of the same places as the DOJ monitors.

“There’s really no reason for voters to be concerned about that,” Elliot said. “So I certainly want everyone to come out and vote and not worry about that.

But, of course, that is all incumbent on monitors doing passive monitoring and nothing else.

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