https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/2018-midterms-live-elections-coverage-analysis/card/1541447566
The U.S. Justice Department said Monday that it will send election observers to polling stations across the country this week to ensure that federal election laws are being upheld.
The observers will be in 35 counties or municipalities across 19 states. The number of jurisdictions is roughly on par with the previous midterm election. In 2014, the Obama administration deployed monitors to 28 jurisdictions in 18 states. During the previous presidential election in 2016, the department monitored 67 jurisdictions in 28 states.
State and local governments across the country are given primary responsibility for administering elections, even for federal office. But Washington plays a role in ensuring that elections are administered lawfully because the right to vote is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and federal civil rights laws. The federal government also has jurisdiction in investigating voter fraud and campaign finance violations.
Federal election observers were first authorized by the Voting Rights Act of 1965—a landmark law designed to reverse the disenfranchisement of African-American voters, particularly in the South. Since then, they have become a routine part of the Justice Department's election-related mission.
In the landmark 2013 decision Shelby County v. Holder, the Supreme Court stuck down key parts of the Voting Rights Act, depriving the department of some of the resources it once used to deploy monitors to southern states. Today, the jurisdictions aren’t chosen based on a history or pattern of discrimination.