Federal monitors visit all 40 Salt Lake County voting centers on Election Day

Federal election monitors sent by the U.S. Justice Department are visiting all 40 Salt Lake County voting centers on Election Day, spending about 30 minutes at each, County Clerk Lannie Chapman told The Salt Lake Tribune. By 10 a.m. Tuesday they had stopped at a couple of locations, she said. ^[1]

Chapman said the monitors had followed state election law and had not interacted with voters or interfered with voting. The county first expected 12 monitors, but the number dropped to 11 because one is not eligible to vote in Utah, which state law requires of a poll watcher. That person still travels with the five monitor groups but cannot act as a poll watcher and must stay at least 150 feet from ballot boxes, she said. ^[1]

What the monitors are there to do

The 12 monitors assigned to Utah, all in Salt Lake County, are among about 1,000 the department said it would send to polling places in all 50 states. A Justice Department letter to Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson said they would watch and take notes without interfering, introduce themselves to the poll manager with identification, and carry no guns or insignia, Utah News Dispatch reported. Chapman said they were expected to check Spanish-language voting materials and compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. ^[1][2]

Chapman told Utah News Dispatch last week she had “no concerns” and noted the monitors are mostly Utah residents. The League of Women Voters of Utah and the ACLU of Utah said they had trained about 150 volunteer observers, who also plan to watch the federal monitors. Helen Moser of the League said the group did not believe the monitors were needed, and Alison Griffith of the ACLU of Utah said the lack of detail about their purpose could make voters uneasy. ^[2]

The Ledger reported Oct. 26 that the department planned 12 monitors for the county after Henderson and Chapman met with its officials. That plan had the monitors working in pairs at six or seven polling places. ^[3]