DeSantis, Florida push back on DOJ monitoring of state election sites

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) administration is pushing back against the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) monitoring of three election sites in the state.

A lawyer for the Florida Department of State said in a letter to the DOJ on Monday that the department’s monitors would not be allowed in polling places in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, claiming the they were not permitted under Florida state law.

“… absent some evidence concerning the need for federal intrusion, or some federal statute that preempts Florida law, the presence of federal law enforcement inside polling places would be counterproductive and could potentially undermine confidence in the election,” General Counsel Brad McVay said in the letter.

The Florida Department of State said it would send its own monitors to the three counties instead.

The DOJ announced on Monday that it would send monitors to 64 jurisdictions across 24 states, including the three Florida counties. The department noted that its Civil Rights Division has “regularly monitored elections” since the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965.

Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach were three of six counties in Florida that the DOJ also monitored in the 2020 election.

A county in Missouri similarly said it planned to block DOJ monitors from entering the polls on Election Day. Cole County Clerk Steve Korsmeyer told the Missouri Independent on Monday that “the DOJ won’t be allowed into our polling locations,” citing Missouri state law.

Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft also accused the DOJ of “intimidating Missouri voters at the polls on Election Day” in a tweet on Sunday.