Shelby County one of three counties in Tennessee the DOJ selected to send election monitors

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - The Department of Justice is deploying 1,000 election monitors across the country, and some will visit polling sites in Shelby County on Election Day, Nov. 3.

Early voting ends Thursday. Election Day is five days away.

A DOJ Spokesperson said, “We will be in all 50 states, including Tennessee, doing the routine election monitoring the department has done for decades.”

The Department of Justice said the monitors are meant to combat election fraud and protect voting rights. Voting and civil rights advocates said they are concerned about federal oversight at the polls.

Federal election monitors are common. Advocates, including Adam Altendorf, organizing director for Organize Tennessee, said they have concerns about how monitors will be used under the Trump administration.

“That’s what I am nervous about, that it will be weaponized, like a reason to not certify the election or to not put in our elected officials who were duly elected,” Altendorf said.

Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett described the role of the monitors in an interview during his stop in Memphis this week.

“They are strictly here to observe. They have absolutely zero input about how elections are being run in this state,” Hargett said.

Shelby County is one of three counties in Tennessee where monitors will be present.

Linda Phillips, administrator of elections for Shelby County, said, “The Shelby County Election Commission has received official notification that election monitors from the Department of Justice will visit our voting sites on Election Day, November 3.”

Phillips said the Department of Justice did not give her a reason Shelby County was selected. The last time federal monitors came to an election in Shelby County was in 2018.

Organize Tennessee is sending 300 poll monitors across the state.

“To make sure, like, the election administration treats everyone equally and make sure, like, no one’s turned away inappropriately,” Altendorf said.

What voters should know

• Department of Justice monitors only observe and report.
• It is illegal for anyone to intimidate or interfere with the voting process.
• Department of Justice monitors cannot speak to voters or ask for identification.

Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy said his office can look into allegations of interference.

“If there is any, you know, allegation of a federal official or anyone else interfering with the voting process or trying to intimidate voters, that is a matter that we can look into,” Mulroy said.

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