Election monitors: New Haven bars DOJ entry

The U.S. Department of Justice plans to send 1,000 election monitors to polling places across the country on Nov. 3, and New Haven officials say those monitors will not be allowed inside local polling locations. The city's two voter registrars told the department this week that state law limits polling place access to a specific list of people.

James T. Tucker, an attorney with the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, emailed New Haven officials last week to say monitors would be sent to examine "compliance with the federal voting rights statutes that fall within the jurisdiction of the Civil Rights Division." He added that the monitors "only observe" and do not "intrude or interfere in any way in the voting process."

New Haven voter registrars Shannel Evans and Lisa Milone responded Thursday that Connecticut statute permits only local election officials, municipal clerks, registrars of voters, voters themselves, and members of the news media inside polling places. "While there are some limited exceptions to the statute, federal election monitors are not one of those exceptions," they wrote. The registrars also said that "there is a current climate in our nation where rhetoric and federal actions appear to be intended to cast doubt on election integrity and to intimidate voters."

Mayor Justin Elicker said the city's Democratic and Republican registrars are working together on ballot access. "Our city, Democrat Registrar of Voters and Republican Registrar of Voters are united in ensuring every eligible New Haven voter can cast their ballot freely, safely, securely and without fear of intimidation or interference," Elicker said. Kiersten V. Pels, a Justice Department spokesperson, said the department "will be in all 50 states doing the routine election monitoring the department has done for decades" and that monitors "follow the state and local laws and rules that govern polling locations." Election officials in Indiana, Kentucky and Arkansas have also barred monitors from entering polling places.

Connecticut Secretary of State Stephanie Thomas said her office received a letter from the Justice Department on Thursday concerning the preservation of voter registration forms, ballots and other election records after a federal election. The letter ended by noting possible criminal penalties for officials who "willfully fail to comply." Thomas said: "While I hope the decision to emphasize criminal penalties was intended simply as a reminder of the law, it could have been handled differently."

Tucker identified Zachary Denver, an attorney with the Connecticut U.S. Attorney's Office, as the team lead assigned to monitoring. Tucker is also one of four prosecutors on a lawsuit filed in January seeking Connecticut's unredacted voter rolls; U.S. District Judge Kari A. Dooley dismissed that case in July, and the Justice Department has appealed. Earlier this month, the federal government sent subpoenas to East Hartford, Plainville and Norwalk seeking voter data, according to Thomas.

The Justice Department has said no FBI or ICE employees will serve as monitors. Eric Neff, acting chief of the department's Voting Section, said in a declaration filed Wednesday that the only Department of Homeland Security representative involved is one Customs and Border Protection employee detailed to the Justice Department, and that monitors drawn from the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are prohibited from carrying firearms while observing polls.

Officials in Bridgeport, Danbury and Hartford said they have not received letters about federal monitors. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Connecticut declined to comment.