The U.S. Department of Justice has told Adams County, Colorado, that it wants to send election monitors there on Election Day, November 3, and the Colorado Secretary of State's office says it is reviewing the request and has asked the department for more information, Colorado Public Radio reported on October 22.
In an October 21 letter, DOJ Civil Rights Division trial attorney Jake Bachand said the monitors would observe whether the county is complying with federal voting-rights laws, including the Voting Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Help America Vote Act. The DOJ said Adams County was chosen because it is covered by Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act for Spanish-language assistance, and that its monitors 'only observe and take notes' and do not intrude on or interfere with voting, The Denver Focal reported.
Secretary of State Jena Griswold's office is treating the DOJ letter as a request for official-observer status under Colorado law. In its October 22 reply, signed by Deputy Secretary of State Andrew Kline, the state asked for each monitor's name, employer, title, division, email and cell phone number, plus the specific location and start and end times of the proposed observation. The reply also set out Colorado rules: official observers may not touch voting material or equipment, speak with voters or election judges, record pictures, video or audio where election activities are conducted, or disrupt the election, and no one may carry a firearm within 100 feet of a polling location, drop box or vote center, CPR reported.
Griswold told Bachand that people without specific federal authorization, a court order or a settlement agreement must be appointed as official observers before entering nonpublic election spaces, and that, in her view, the federal statutes the DOJ cited do not authorize access to those spaces. Colorado is reviewing the request with the state Attorney General's office, The Denver Focal reported.
Adams County is the largest county by voter population in Colorado's 8th Congressional District, a toss-up seat where Republican Representative Gabe Evans faces Democratic challenger Manny Rutinel. About 40 percent of the district identifies as Hispanic or Latino. Adams County Clerk Josh Zygielbaum, a Democrat, told NPR the Section 203 coverage 'still doesn't put me at ease that it's not a targeted visit,' while adding that his office is coordinating with the Secretary of State and that county election procedures remain unchanged. Rutinel's campaign said voters should be able to cast ballots without intimidation; Evans's campaign had not responded to a request for comment in the Focal report. NPR has also confirmed DOJ monitor notifications to counties in Florida, Minnesota, Texas and Washington.
The DOJ also notified Douglas County earlier in the week, then said on Thursday that the letter was a mistake. 'The notification to Douglas County that we are going there to monitor was made in error, and we apologize. We only plan to monitor in Adams County,' Bachand said, according to CPR. The department sent monitors to 64 counties in the 2022 midterms.
Adams County's Spanish-speaking voters are exactly why the DOJ says it is coming — and exactly why state officials want the visit on Colorado's terms. For immigrant and language-minority voters, including Punjabi-speaking voters in other Section 203 areas, the Adams dispute is the latest test of who controls access inside polling places on November 3: federal monitors, or the state that runs the election.
What is solid
- The DOJ notified Adams County of planned November 3 monitors in an October 21 letter citing the Voting Rights Act, ADA and HAVA, and says Adams was chosen for its Section 203 Spanish-language coverage — reported by both CPR and The Denver Focal.
- Colorado's October 22 reply sought each monitor's identifying details and observation times and listed state observer rules; the DOJ has acknowledged the Douglas County notice was an error.
What is only claimed
- Whether the planned visit is routine compliance monitoring, as the DOJ says, or a targeted visit, as Clerk Zygielbaum said he fears, is disputed between the officials involved.
- Whether the federal statutes the DOJ cited authorize its monitors to enter nonpublic election spaces without state observer status is contested — Griswold's office says they do not, in its view.