Jonathan Drake / Reuters Voters fill in their ballots at a crowded polling station on North Carolina's first day of early voting for the general elections, in Carrboro, North Carolina, October 20, 2016.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Personnel from the U.S. Justice Department’s civil rights division will be deployed to polling sites in 28 states to monitor Tuesday’s election, five more than it monitored in the 2012 election, the department said on Monday.

Most of those states will receive Justice Department staff who have no statutory authority to access polling sites as a result of a 2013 Supreme Court decision that struck down parts of the Voting Rights Act, curtailing the department’s ability to deploy election observers with unfettered access to the polls.

(Reporting by Julia Harte; Editing by Will Dunham)