DOJ sending voting rights monitors to 18 states, including Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio
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The Justice Department is sending voting rights monitors to 18 states Tuesday, including jurisdictions in the key battlegrounds of Florida, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Ohio.
Drawn from the department’s Civil Rights Division, the monitors have been traditionally deployed on Election Day to guard against potential harassment, intimidation and discrimination.
Federal staffers will be sent to 44 jurisdictions in the 18 states, fewer than the 2016 effort overseen by the Obama administration, which deployed monitors to 67 jurisdictions in 28 states.
This year, tensions have been running particularly high, as President Donald Trump has repeatedly raised unsubstantiated claims about massive voter fraud while urging his own supporters to monitor voting locations.
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