The U.S. Department of Justice sent approximately 1,000 election monitors to polling locations in all 50 states on Tuesday, Nov. 3. It was the largest such deployment in the department's history.

In New Mexico, only Bernalillo County appeared on the DOJ's list of monitored jurisdictions. Doña Ana County, the state's second-most-populous county and home to a closely watched congressional race, was not included.

Doña Ana County Clerk Amanda López Askin told Source New Mexico on Oct. 29 that she had not heard from the DOJ about monitors in the county. The county is expected to process the largest share of votes in the 2nd Congressional District race between incumbent U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez and Republican challenger Greg Cunningham, Source New Mexico reported.

The DOJ said the effort was coordinated by its Civil Rights Division. Monitors included personnel from the division, other DOJ components, U.S. Attorney's Offices and federal observers from the Office of Personnel Management, according to the department's announcement.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Civil Rights Division said in a statement that the department was pursuing election transparency "in an assertive and nondiscriminatory manner."

Bernalillo County prepared

Bernalillo County officials told Source New Mexico that the DOJ informed the county roughly three weeks before Election Day that it would send approximately 10 monitors. The department did not explain why it selected the county.

Bernalillo County Clerk Michelle Kavanaugh said in an emailed statement to Source New Mexico that the county had hosted DOJ monitors before. "This is not unusual for us, and we've accommodated DOJ monitors in previous elections without incident," she said.

Lindsey Bachman, the secretary of state's communications, legislative and executive affairs director, told Source New Mexico her office had been made aware only of the monitors' presence in Bernalillo County.

Scale dwarfs past deployments

The deployment marked a sharp increase. The DOJ sent 289 monitors to 24 states during the 2022 midterms, according to Newsweek. Newsweek reported that 714 monitors were deployed for the 2024 presidential election.

In an Oct. 28 court filing, the DOJ said FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel would not serve as monitors, Newsweek reported. The department said monitors would not carry firearms or exercise law enforcement authority, according to court filings cited by Newsweek.

Voting rights groups raised concerns

The NAACP sued in October, warning that the expanded federal presence could intimidate voters, according to Newsweek. A federal judge ruled Monday, Nov. 2, that the DOJ could deploy monitors as long as they were not law enforcement officers with arrest authority, Democracy Now reported.

Kristen Clarke, general counsel of the NAACP and a former assistant attorney general for civil rights, said on Democracy Now that the DOJ had pulled back personnel from ATF and the U.S. Marshals Service who would have been deployed.

USA Today reported that in states with closely contested Senate races, monitors were assigned to cities and counties with disproportionately high levels of Black and Hispanic residents, according to U.S. Census data.

New Mexico watchdog groups also mobilized

The Secretary of State's Office credentialed 571 watchers from six organizations to monitor New Mexico elections this year, Source New Mexico reported. Carmen Lopez, co-lead for Observe New Mexico Elections, told Source New Mexico her group had nearly twice as many volunteer observers as in 2024, with about 325 approved compared with roughly 170 that year.

New Mexico lawmakers this session passed Senate Bill 264, which aims to prevent intimidation by federal immigration agents and others at local polling places, Source New Mexico reported.

Voters with questions about federal voting rights can call the DOJ's election hotline at 1-800-253-3931.