The Marion County Election Board said Wednesday that 12 election monitors from the U.S. Department of Justice will be at various polling places in Indianapolis on Election Day.
Marion County Clerk Kate Sweeney Bell said in a statement that the monitors won’t be allowed inside vote centers but could be outside polling locations.
Marion County will likely have around 183 vote centers open on Election Day.
The monitors voters may see outside polling places are not federal law enforcement and are there to observe compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, language-assistance laws and the use of provisional ballots, according to the county election board.
This follows the DOJ's announcement last week that it would send 1,000 monitors across all 50 states this election, “doing the routine election monitoring the department has done for decades.”
Last week, the clerk’s office said no one explained why Marion and Lake County were the only two counties chosen to receive monitors statewide. Marion and Lake County have some of the highest percentages of democratic and minority voters in the state.
The Marion County Election Board has prepared for this possibility by approving a new protocol for how poll workers should respond if federal law enforcement shows up at the polls.
Federal law prohibits armed federal officers from entering vote centers, or federal employees from interfering with elections. These actions could include directing poll workers to change procedures, interviewing voters or examining equipment, according to the Marion County poll worker policy.
“Voters have a right to free and fair elections absent of any interference or intimidation,” said Clerk Sweeney Bell in a statement. “No voter will be hassled by monitors when entering the polls, nor do they have any responsibility to talk to them after they’ve cast their ballot.”
The DOJ has regularly used monitors to observe elections across the country. During the Biden administration, the department monitored 64 jurisdictions in 24 states on Election Day during the 2022 midterm elections.
Bridgett King, an associate professor of political science at the University of Kentucky, said that even if monitors don’t physically manipulate voting machines or talk to voters that day, voter intimidation remains a concern.
“What does it mean to have an additional physical presence at a polling location in terms of people who might be marginalized or feel vulnerable sort of approaching the polling location to check in and cast a ballot,” King said.
Indiana’s general election is Tuesday, Nov. 3. Marion County voters can vote early now at the city-county building.
Contact Government Reporter Caroline Beck at cbeck@wfyi.org
