DOJ sends monitors to Michigan poll sites as lawmakers warn of partisan aim
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- Justice Department deployed federal monitors to four Michigan cities — Detroit, Hamtramck, Lansing, and East Lansing — for Tuesday's primary, part of a broader program covering 15 jurisdictions across six states including Arizona, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Virginia
- Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said the monitors aim to ensure "free and fair elections nationwide" with "uniform and nondiscriminatory monitoring," but the DOJ offered no reason for selecting those four Michigan cities
- Ten Democratic senators sent a Monday letter to the DOJ seeking assurances that monitors won't "target jurisdictions in a partisan manner," "discourage voter participation," or "interfere with state and local election officials"
- Trump re-upped a previously concluded probe into alleged voter fraud in Muskegon during a mid-July primetime speech, urging the FBI to reinvestigate — though local officials had found no fraudulent ballots were cast
- A federal judge ruled Tuesday the Trump administration cannot access Colorado's voter data, the latest in a string of similar rulings against DOJ efforts to obtain state voter rolls
- Voters in Michigan are deciding nominees for a competitive Democratic Senate primary between Abdul El-Sayed and Haley Stevens, and a gubernatorial race where Democrat Jocelyn Benson is expected to win her primary
Why it matters: With the DOJ monitoring 15 jurisdictions across six states and a federal judge blocking Trump administration access to Colorado voter data the same day, Democratic lawmakers are demanding guarantees that poll monitors won't be deployed to intimidate voters in Democratic-leaning cities. The Michigan primaries will set the November midterm ballot.
