Missouri sues DOJ in effort to block poll monitors

The Republican-led state of Missouri on Monday asked a judge to block the Justice Department from dispatching lawyers to St. Louis to monitor adherence to federal voting rights laws on Election Day.

Missouri's attorney general and secretary of state claimed in the lawsuit that, "at the 11th hour," the DOJ is seeking to "displace state election authorities" by sending monitors to polling locations across the city.

The Justice Department announced its intent to send poll monitors to 27 states in a press release Friday, asserting that the agency "regularly deploys its staff to monitor for compliance with federal civil rights laws in elections in communities all across the country."

"To secure elections, Missouri exercised that traditional authority by enacting a law that strictly limits who, besides voters, can be present in a polling location. Poll monitors employed by DOJ are not on that list," the state's complaint reads.

"Yet without specifically citing any federal authority authorizing its actions, DOJ announced on Friday November 1 its intent to displace Missouri law and place unauthorized poll monitors in polling locations in the City of St. Louis."

St. Louis is the only Missouri city where Justice Department monitors plan to keep an eye out on Election Day. In 2021, the city reached a settlement with the DOJ after the agency identified “architectural barriers” at polling places to people with disabilities, including inaccessible parking and too-steep ramps or stairs-only entrances.

As part of that settlement, reached in the final days of former President Trump's administration, the city’s Board of Election Commissioners agreed to let the Justice Department monitor for compliance — including on Election Day.

The Justice Department will monitor compliance with federal voting rights laws in several other states, including several jurisdictions in the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Missouri is not a battleground state.

The Justice Department has not yet replied to the complaint and declined to comment on the matter.

This story was updated at 5:21 p.m.