Todd Spangler

Detroit Free Press

The U.S. Justice Department said Monday that it will dispatch more than 500 people to more than five dozen communities across the U.S. — including Detroit, Dearborn Heights and Hamtramck — to monitor polling places on Tuesday to "protect the rights of all citizens to access the ballot on Election Day."

In a release this morning, the Justice Department said that while state and local governments have primary responsibility for administering elections, it has regularly monitored elections since the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to make sure voters have equal access to polling places.

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“On Election Day itself, lawyers in the Civil Rights Division’s Voting Section will staff a hotline starting in the early hours of the morning, and just as we have sent election monitors in prior elections, we will continue to have a robust election monitors program in place on Election Day," said U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch. "Our personnel will perform these duties impartially, with one goal in mind: to see to it that every eligible voter can participate in our elections to the full extent that federal law provides."

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The announcement comes as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has called for his supporters to keep a close eye on polls amid his claims of the process being potentially "rigged." The Michigan Republican Party also has been named in lawsuits -- including at least one filed in Michigan -- complaining that announced efforts of a voter anti-fraud effort could lead to voter intimidation.

Earlier this year, Lynch had said the department would severely curtail the number of poll monitors it sent out across the country in the wake of the Supreme Court's 2013 decision Shelby County v. Holder, which overturned parts of the Voting Rights Act that allowed observers to be sent to areas without prior permission from local voting officials. Presumably, this year's monitors are going to polling places where officials have given permission for them to observe.

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In the release, the agency said it would "gather information on, among other things, whether voters are subject to different voting qualifications or procedures on the basis of race, color or membership in a language minority group," as well as other voting protections. Last month, the Justice Department announced efforts to ensure that all qualified voters have the opportunity to cast their ballots and have their votes counted free of discrimination, intimidation or fraud in the election process.

Civil Rights Division staff members will be available by telephone to receive complaints related to possible violations of the federal voting rights laws at 1-800-253-3931. People may also report complaints by email to voting.section@usdoj.gov or on the department’s website www.justice.gov/crt/votercomplaint.

Complaints about any disruptions at polling places should be reported first to local election officials or, in the case of complaints related to violence, threats of violence or intimidation, to local police by calling 911, the Justice Department said.

Contact Todd Spangler at 703-854-8947 or at tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter at @tsspangler.