The Department of Justice confirmed in a federal court filing on October 28 that agents from the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement will not serve as federal election monitors during the 2026 midterm elections.
Submitted in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the formal declaration clarifies that the administration will not assign sworn law enforcement officers who hold arrest powers to monitor voting sites. The submission came from Eric Neff, the acting chief of the Voting Section within the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, during litigation under the Freedom of Information Act brought by the NAACP.
Limits on Personnel and Equipment
Under federal guidelines, individuals serving as election monitors cannot carry firearms or display badges and clothing identifying them as federal agents. Monitors are also required to complete instruction on relevant federal and local election laws.
United States law broadly bars the positioning of armed military or federal personnel at voting venues, except when necessary to repel armed enemies of the country. The roster of monitors will instead draw from personnel within the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the ATF, the DEA, and a single Customs and Border Protection staff member detailed to the department, all limited to standard civil rights monitoring functions.
Monitoring Scope and Field Structure
Attorney General Todd Blanche stated that the Civil Rights Division plans to send a thousand or more staff members across every state on November 3. Civil Rights Division head Harmeet Dhillon described the project as the largest federal election observer deployment in American history.
Separately, FBI Director Kash Patel stated before lawmakers that the bureau will station an election crimes community coordinator at each of its 56 field offices on Election Day. That coordination operates through field headquarters rather than direct stationing inside voting precincts.
President Donald Trump previously declined to rule out sending immigration personnel to voting sites, saying in an interview that he would see about using the Insurrection Act. Concerns regarding federal law enforcement presence also grew after federal agents reportedly appeared near early voting locations in Florida in two separate instances, including one matter reportedly referred to the FBI. In August, federal monitors arrived unannounced at primary sites in Wyoming and sought access to voting machines, drawing public criticism from Republican Governor Mark Gordon.
