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Justice Department to Monitor Elections in Massachusetts


WEBWIRE

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department today announced that on Sept. 25, 2007, it will monitor special preliminary elections in Boston, Mass., to ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act.

Under the Voting Rights Act, the Justice Department is authorized to ask the Office of Personnel Management to send federal observers to areas that are specially covered in the Act itself or by a federal court order. Federal observers will be assigned to monitor polling place activities for the special preliminary elections in Boston, Mass., pursuant to a federal court order entered in 2005.

The observers will watch and record activities during voting hours at polling locations in the city. Civil Rights Division attorneys will coordinate the federal activities and maintain contact with local election officials.

The city of Boston has an obligation to provide all election information, ballots and voting assistance information in Spanish pursuant to Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act. Pursuant to a memorandum of agreement and settlement entered into with the United States, Boston also must provide such information and assistance in Chinese and Vietnamese. 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.



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