Federal election monitors from the U.S. Department of Justice will be at Franklin County polling places on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3, but they will have to stay outside the 100-foot restricted zone around each polling place entrance, county election officials say. Franklin County Board of Elections Director Antone White said on Oct. 30 that county officials met with the Justice Department about a week before the election and explained Ohio’s perimeter rule, and the department did not object and agreed to remain outside it, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
The monitors are part of a Justice Department effort to send 1,000 officials to polling places in every state, White told The Columbus Dispatch. Franklin is one of three Ohio counties receiving the federal monitors; the others are Cuyahoga and Medina counties. White told The Columbus Dispatch he did not know how many monitors are headed to Franklin County, and a Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to the newspaper’s request for comment on Oct. 30.
"What voters need to remember is you’re probably not going to realize who these people are," White told The Columbus Dispatch. "And their presence doesn’t change anything about the voting process, doesn’t change eligibility requirements, etc." The monitors will be in plain clothes, White told The Columbus Dispatch, and they may speak with voters outside the 100-foot perimeter who choose to talk with them.
According to a letter the Justice Department sent to affected Ohio counties, the monitors come from the department’s Civil Rights Division and, as in past elections, will only observe and will not intrude or interfere in any way in the voting process, The Columbus Dispatch reported. Election observation itself is nothing new in Franklin County, White noted: political parties and candidates routinely appoint their own observers, and news media observe as well.
Ohio law draws a clear line between those observers and everyone else. Under the Ohio Revised Code, observers appointed by parties or candidates may enter polling locations and watch without interfering with or speaking to voters inside, The Columbus Dispatch reported, though the deadline to appoint them falls 11 days before the election. Anyone who has not gone through that state process — including campaigners holding signs or handing out literature — must stay behind the small flags poll workers use to mark the 100-foot perimeter.
"I don’t anticipate any problems," White told The Columbus Dispatch. "We have the authority to remove any observer, including DOJ observers, who are interfering. I don’t think voters should be fearful of election observation. We have observation every election."
For Franklin County voters, nothing about casting a ballot changes on Tuesday: polls are open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., and the same identification and eligibility rules apply whether or not a federal monitor is standing outside. Voters with questions about their polling place can check with the Franklin County Board of Elections before heading out.
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