New Bedford voters will head to the polls on November 3 without federal election monitors looking over anyone's shoulder. The U.S. Department of Justice told the city it no longer intends to send observers, a reversal for a city that was named as a monitoring target earlier this year.
According to 1420 WBSM, the DOJ notified the city on Friday, October 23, that it no longer planned to send election-day observers. On Monday, city officials reconfirmed with the DOJ and the Massachusetts Secretary of State's Office that no DOJ monitors would be present at New Bedford polls for the state election. The city's Election Commission said it “remains in communication with federal and state election officials and will provide future updates if needed.”
The same report notes that the commission had received inquiries about whether federal observers would monitor the general election. No explanation for the change has surfaced in the available reporting, and the text of the DOJ's notification has not been made public.
From Named Target to Off the List
The reversal is striking given how the summer played out. Harmeet Dhillon announced on July 7 that the DOJ would deploy monitors in 15 jurisdictions across six states, including Massachusetts, and WBSM reports she later identified New Bedford as one of them. The Boston Herald reported that monitors were headed to Boston and New Bedford for the September primary, and that Dhillon forecast “an even more expanded” list of jurisdictions for the November general election.
Two teams of federal observers did show up for the September 1 primary, WBSM reports, watching proceedings and taking notes. The New Bedford Light reported that poll watchers had received “no reports whatsoever” of any federal monitors interfering with voters.
The Voter List Standoff
The monitoring plan came wrapped in a dispute over data. The DOJ's request cited concern over residents with limited English having access to the ballot and asked for the city's voter rolls. In an earlier report, The New Bedford Light said the department wanted the registered voter list with first and last names, a list of precincts and polling sites, and all voting materials sent to voters.
Mayor Jon Mitchell refused to hand it over. He said he was “concerned that the Department's inquiry is not designed to determine compliance with the Voting Rights Act, and is rather a pretext for unwarranted federal intrusion into a locally-administered election,” according to the Light.
Boston and Lowell Still on the List
Monitors are not vanishing from Massachusetts altogether. The Lowell Sun reported that DOJ monitors are expected in Boston and Lowell, as they were in the primary. The Secretary of State's office told the paper it is typical for monitors to visit both cities because of their complex language requirements, noting that Lowell has the state's only trilingual ballot while Boston offers three versions of bilingual ballots.
Nationally, PBS News reported that the DOJ planned to dispatch 1,000 election monitors to all 50 states on Election Day, more than double the 388 sent during the 2022 midterms. The department said it was identifying jurisdictions partly based on past problems with language access and disability access.
For New Bedford, the practical upshot is simple: polls open November 3 with local election workers and poll watchers, and no federal observers on the scene.
