Krishnamoorthi Sounds Alarm Over Trump DOJ Deployments to Polling Places and Voter Suppression Risks

WASHINGTON - Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL-08), a senior member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, today sent a letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche sounding the alarm over the Trump Administration's plans to deploy as many as 1,000 Department of Justice election monitors during the 2026 midterms and demanding safeguards against voter intimidation. As President Trump continues to promote unsupported claims about election fraud and foreign manipulation, Krishnamoorthi is seeking assurances that DOJ personnel will be used solely to protect Americans' right to vote, not to intimidate voters, pressure election officials, or advance unsupported claims about the integrity of American elections.

In the letter, Krishnamoorthi writes:

"If the Administration repeatedly tells the public that certain voting systems, jurisdictions, or categories of voters are vulnerable to fraud or foreign manipulation, and then sends federal personnel into those same communities on Election Day, the presence of those personnel can create an atmosphere of suspicion and intimidation-even if individual monitors follow their formal instructions. The federal government's presence at a polling place carries authority that ordinary election observers do not, and voters should never be left wondering whether exercising their right to vote has placed them under federal scrutiny."

According to recent reporting cited in the letter, DOJ is preparing as many as 1,000 election monitors for the 2026 midterms, compared with plans to monitor 86 jurisdictions across 27 states during the 2024 general election. During the 2025 election cycle, DOJ also deployed federal observers to six counties in California and New Jersey following requests from Republican state parties, raising concerns about deployments in politically consequential jurisdictions following partisan requests.

The planned deployments come as President Trump continues to cast doubt on the integrity of American elections and DOJ has sued approximately 30 states seeking access to their unredacted voter rolls. As of August 2026, federal district courts had rejected the Department's efforts in roughly two dozen cases, with no judge having sided with the Administration in those cases.

Krishnamoorthi continues:

"Taken together, these actions create a troubling perception: the federal government is simultaneously seeking expansive access to Americans' voter information, challenging state election systems, and preparing to place potentially 1,000 federal monitors in communities across the country. At the same time, the President is publicly asserting that American elections are vulnerable to fraud and foreign manipulation, including alleged interference by China."

Krishnamoorthi requested responses by August 31, 2026, including answers to the following questions:

1. How many federal election monitors does the Department intend to deploy during the 2026 general election, and in how many jurisdictions?
2. What objective, nonpartisan criteria is the Department using to determine where monitors will be deployed?
3. How many jurisdictions receiving federal monitors were selected following requests from Republican or Democratic political parties, candidates, or elected officials?
4. Will the Department commit that political party affiliation, electoral competitiveness, or a jurisdiction's voting history will play no role in determining whether federal monitors are deployed?
5. What written guidance have federal monitors received concerning interactions with voters, poll workers, and election administrators?
6. Will monitors be prohibited from questioning, photographing, following, recording, or otherwise interacting with voters unless specifically authorized by federal law?
7. What safeguards are in place to prevent the presence of federal monitors from intimidating voters or discouraging lawful participation in the electoral process?
8. Will the Department commit that election monitors will not be used to investigate generalized allegations of voter fraud or foreign interference absent specific evidence of a violation of federal law?

Congressman Krishnamoorthi's letter is available here.