DOJ Deploys 1,000 Monitors as Washington Boosts Election Security
The U.S. Department of Justice is deploying 1,000 federal monitors nationwide while Washington state uses National Guard members to secure ballot drop boxes.
The United States Department of Justice is deploying 1,000 federal election monitors across the country for the 2026 midterm elections to ensure compliance with disability and language accessibility laws. Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon stated that these monitors will observe operations in both Republican and Democrat-led states without interfering in election administration.
In Washington, six counties—Clark, Island, King, Pierce, Snohomish, and Thurston—accepted an offer from Governor Bob Ferguson to deploy unarmed, plainclothes National Guard members to monitor ballot drop boxes. This security increase follows a 2024 arson attack on a drop box in Vancouver and recent white powder mailings to state officials. Pierce County Auditor Linda Farmer noted the installation of bullet-resistant glass in observation corridors to protect the vote.
Federal monitors are specifically assigned to King and Yakima counties in Washington, as well as Milwaukee, Wisconsin. While some local officials welcome the monitors, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and New York Attorney General Letitia James criticized the deployment, alleging the president is using the observers as a weapon against states that do not support him.
Additional tensions have emerged following allegations by two U.S. Attorneys that over 400 non-citizens are on Washington's voter rolls. Secretary of State Steve Hobbs dismissed these claims as an attempt to cast unfounded suspicion on the results. Meanwhile, officials clarified that a Federal Election Commission outage caused by hacking concerns will not impact ballot counting, as those systems utilize closed, air-gapped networks.
