A government watchdog group filed a complaint against the Department of Justice (DOJ) this week in an attempt to obtain records regarding far right politicians blocking federal election monitors in certain polling places during the 2022 election.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is suing over the DOJ’s failure to turn over records of communications between federal officials and state politicians in Florida and Missouri, saying that the agency violated the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by neglecting to respond to CREW’s November FOIA filing in a timely manner.
The group says that the records can shine a light on the DOJ’s response to Florida and Missouri’s rejection of the federal election monitors, which the federal government has deployed for decades across the country to ensure that election laws are being followed.
Shortly before the election last year, far right Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s administration and the Missouri attorney general each stated that they would not be allowing election monitors in polling places.
Federal election monitoring is a long-held practice meant to ensure that laws like the Voting Rights Act are being followed. Fears around far right violence at polling stations caused the DOJ to increase the number of election monitors from 44 in 2020 to 64 in the 2022 midterm elections.
The DOJ was planning to send monitors to three Florida counties that have among the highest concentrations of Democrats in the state. DeSantis officials rejected this, saying that it violated Florida law — but advocates have questioned the true motives behind this move, noting DeSantis’s efforts to arrest people for attempting to vote and his formation of a fascist election police force.
The DOJ ultimately said it would be monitoring outside of polling places in Florida, as Florida officials said they would allow.
Blocking the monitors from entering polling sites “likely impeded the DOJ Civil Rights Division’s ability to protect federal voting rights in those states,” CREW said in a post about the complaint.
“The months leading up to the 2022 midterm elections were notably marked by a series of humiliating and harmful publicity stunts by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, including public arrests for so-called election crimes and the roll out of new restrictive election laws, which disproportionately disenfranchised Black voters,” CREW continued. “The rebuke of federal election oversight came on the heels of these efforts, raising questions around whether the federal government is adequately able to protect voting rights.”
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy