More Eyes on the Vote Is a Good Thing. Let Them Watch.

A record federal monitoring effort, tens of thousands of party and activist observers, and one simple rule: watch, don't interfere. Transparency is how you earn trust in the count.

By Clara Hughes

Eight days from Election Day, America is about to have what the Associated Press says could be the most heavily observed vote "in modern times." That is good news, and Americans of every party should say so. The Justice Department says it will deploy about 1,000 department staff to monitor the vote, the largest such effort it has ever run, according to an Associated Press report published by NBC News. Department spokesperson Kiersten Pels gave the figure, and a senior department official said monitors will go to every state, focusing on high-population areas, places that have had problems before and closely contested districts. The scale is new. The practice is not. CBS News noted in August that the department sent 289 monitors in 2022 and 714 in 2024, covering 27 states and 86 jurisdictions. Sending federal monitors to check compliance with the Voting Rights Act is a long-standing practice. Everybody is watching, and that's the