The US Department of Justice announced the deployment of federal monitors to polling locations in Detroit, Hamtramck, Lansing, and East Lansing during Michigan’s primary election on Tuesday. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon stated the monitors were part of ongoing efforts to “ensure free and fair elections nationwide” and that the DOJ was “devoting extensive resources to ensure uniform and nondiscriminatory monitoring.”
The DOJ has maintained an election monitoring program for decades to ensure compliance with federal civil rights laws. However, lawmakers and advocates have voiced concerns about how such monitoring could be applied under the current administration. The announcement follows the DOJ’s earlier indication that it would monitor 15 jurisdictions across six states—Arizona, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Virginia—with plans to expand monitoring heading into November. The department did not provide specific reasons for selecting the four Michigan cities.
Three of the four selected cities—Detroit, Lansing, and East Lansing—lean heavily Democratic, while Hamtramck, historically considered the nation’s first Muslim-majority city, has traditionally leaned Democratic though recent years have seen a shift toward Republican support. Ten Democratic senators sent a letter to the DOJ on Monday requesting assurances that monitors would not “target jurisdictions in a partisan manner” or interfere with voting participation or election officials’ work. The senators noted the broader context of administration efforts to access state voter data, including a recent court ruling preventing access to Colorado’s voter information.
The senators expressed concern that monitors appear to be deployed disproportionately to jurisdictions in Democratic-led states or with Democratic chief election officials. President Trump has previously made unsubstantiated claims about election fraud and has called for Republicans to “nationalise” elections, a proposal that would depart from the current constitutional framework in which states administer elections independently. Michigan voters on Tuesday were selecting nominees for local, state, and congressional races ahead of November’s midterm election, including competitive Democratic and Republican primary contests.
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