The U.S. Department of Justice deployed approximately 1,000 election monitors across all 50 states on Tuesday, Nov. 3, marking the largest such effort in the agency's history.

In Kentucky, the monitors were sent to Jefferson and Fayette counties, home to Louisville and Lexington. Northern Kentucky counties were not on the list, according to a DOJ letter to state officials first reported by the Kentucky Lantern.

The DOJ's Civil Rights Division coordinated the effort. Monitors include personnel from multiple DOJ divisions, U.S. Attorney's Offices and federal observers from the Office of Personnel Management, according to a DOJ statement. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said in the statement that election integrity has been one of the top priorities for the administration and the division.

What monitors will do

The DOJ letter to Secretary of State Michael Adams and State Board of Elections Executive Director Karen Sellers said monitors would "only observe and take notes" and would not "intrude or interfere in any way in the voting process," the Kentucky Lantern reported.

The monitors are not law enforcement officers.

Jefferson County Clerk David Yates said approximately a dozen federal monitors were expected in Louisville. "These individuals are DOJ employees serving as civil election monitors," Yates said. "They are not federal law enforcement officers and will not be serving in a law enforcement capacity."

Yates' office told the DOJ that routine federal monitoring inside polling locations is not authorized under Kentucky law without other legal authority, the Kentucky Lantern reported. His office provided alternative ways for DOJ representatives to raise concerns.

In Fayette County, spokesperson Quin Welch said officials met with DOJ representatives to discuss the plans. The monitors were expected to visit polling places in groups of two to three to check for Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance, provisional ballot distribution and language assistance, according to Welch's statement reported by the Kentucky Lantern.

Concerns and assurances

The deployment drew concern from voting-rights groups. USA Today reported that groups including the NAACP said they believe the monitors could suppress turnout, particularly among minority voters. Axios reported the effort came after courts rejected DOJ attempts to force states to restrict voting over alleged noncitizen participation.

Adams said he received assurances from the highest level of the federal government that "there will not be federal government law enforcement at the polls. There won't be ICE. There won't be FBI," according to a Kentucky Lantern commentary by University of Kentucky law professor Josh Douglas.

Voting in NKY

Kenton County Clerk Gabrielle Summe told WLWT that early voting energy was high and lines were forming at her five early voting locations when the period began Oct. 29.

Statewide, 438,602 Kentuckians cast absentee and early ballots, about 30% more than the 337,975 who voted by those methods in the 2022 midterms, according to the Kentucky Lantern, citing Adams. Polls across Kentucky were open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. local time on Nov. 3. Voters with questions about potential election law violations could call the state Attorney General's Election Fraud Hotline at (800) 328-VOTE or the DOJ's hotline at 1-800-253-3931.