SAVANNAH, Ga. — Federal election monitors are coming to Chatham County for next week’s midterm vote, and local Democrats in Savannah are pushing back hard on the plan.
Washington is sending observers to several states for the Nov. 3 vote, Georgia among them. Chatham is one of six Georgia counties on its list, along with Bibb, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett. All six are Democratic strongholds that backed the Democratic presidential nominee in each of the last three elections, and Chatham did so by an average margin of 17.2 percent.
A letter to Chatham election officials from a trial attorney in the department’s Civil Rights Division asks for a meeting to work out logistics but offers few other details.
At a Democratic rally in Savannah on Sunday, state Rep. Anne Allen Westbrook of District 163 said today’s Justice Department is not the agency voters remember. Savannah Mayor Van Johnson said Chatham is on a federal target list.
U.S. Attorney Meg Heap of the Southern District of Georgia, who once served as Chatham’s district attorney, rolled out an election integrity plan on Oct. 19 in coordination with the Civil Rights Division. Her office said it would protect polling places and mail-in ballots, look into claims of ballot harvesting or disruption at the polls, and watch for compliance with the Voting Rights Act through early voting and Election Day. That statement did not name any county.
Monitors have limited power. They generally need permission from state or local election officials before stepping inside a polling place, and federal and state law bar them from intimidating or pressuring voters.
Voters who see possible fraud or intimidation can report it through the FBI Tips Portal or to local law enforcement, and civil rights complaints can go to the Civil Rights Division. Election Day is Nov. 3.
Section: More Savannah GA politics news
Filed under: Savannah GA Politics News
