Justice Department to Monitor Elections in Florida

The Justice Department today announced that on March 13, 2007, it will deploy Department personnel to monitor municipal general elections in the cities of Miramar and Hallandale in Broward County, Fla., to ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act. A Civil Rights Division attorney will coordinate the federal activities and maintain contact with local election officials.

Both cities have an obligation to provide all election information, ballots, and voting assistance information in Spanish as well as in English pursuant to Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act. The observers and monitors will gather information concerning compliance.

Each year, the Justice Department deploys hundreds of federal observers from the Office of Personnel Management, as well as departmental staff, to monitor elections across the country. During calendar year 2004, a record 1,463 federal observers and 533 Department personnel were sent to monitor 163 elections in 106 jurisdictions in 29 states. This compares to the 640 federal observers and 110 Department personnel deployed during the entire 2000 presidential calendar year. In 2006, another record was set for the mid-term elections with more than 800 federal observers and Department personnel sent to monitor polling places in 69 jurisdictions in 22 states on election day. The Department's election monitoring program also has been very active in non- federal election years. In calendar year 2005, for example, 640 federal observers and 191 Department personnel were sent to monitor 47 elections in 36 jurisdictions in 14 states.

To file complaints about discriminatory voting practices, including acts of harassment or intimidation, voters may call the Voting Section of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division at 1-800-253-3931.

More information about the Voting Rights Act and other federal voting laws is available on the Department of Justice Web site at http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/voting/index.htm.