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Under the Voting Rights Act, the Justice Department is authorized to ask the Office
of Personnel Management to send federal observers to areas that are specially
covered in the Act or by a federal court order. Federal observers will be assigned to
monitor polling place activities in Hale County, Ala., based on the special coverage
provisions. In San Benito, San Diego and Ventura Counties, Calif. and in Cibola
and Sandoval Counties, N.M., federal observers will monitor elections pursuant to
federal court orders entered in 2004.
The observers will watch and record activities during voting hours at polling
locations in these counties. Civil Rights Division attorneys will coordinate the
federal activities and maintain contact with local election officials.
Each of the monitored counties except Hale County, Ala., has an obligation to
provide all election information, ballots and voting assistance information in one or
more minority languages pursuant to Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act. The
observers and monitors will gather information concerning compliance. In Hale
County, the federal observers will monitor to ensure that the right of voters to
participate in the primary election is not denied on the basis of their race.
Each year, the Justice Department deploys hundreds of federal observers from the
Office of Personnel Management, as well as departmental staff, to monitor elections
across the country. In 2004, a record 1,463 federal observers and 533 Department
personnel were sent to monitor 163 elections in 105 jurisdictions in 29 states. Last
year for off-year elections there were 640 federal observers and 191 Department
personnel sent to monitor 47 elections in 36 jurisdictions in 14 states.
More information about the Voting Rights Act and other federal voting laws is
available on the Department of Justice Web site at
http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/voting/index.htm.
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