Sedgwick County is one of three Kansas counties where federal election monitors are stationed for the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
The U.S. Department of Justice deployed approximately 1,000 monitors to all 50 states, the first time the agency has covered every state. Three monitors were assigned to Sedgwick County, eight to Wyandotte County and two to Johnson County, according to the Kansas secretary of state's office, as KCUR reported.
That totals 13 monitors statewide.
The DOJ described the effort as its "largest monitoring effort in history," according to a department news release. The Civil Rights Division is coordinating the deployment, which includes personnel from U.S. Attorney's Offices and federal observers from the Office of Personnel Management.
The agency has sent election monitors since the enactment of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. In 2024, the DOJ monitored 86 jurisdictions across 27 states, according to the DOJ’s 2024 announcement. During the 2022 midterms under President Joe Biden, the DOJ sent monitors to 64 jurisdictions across 24 states, States Newsroom reported.
The Kansas secretary of state's office said the DOJ would not disclose which specific polling locations are being monitored, KSN reported. A spokesperson for the secretary of state's office said DOJ monitors in Kansas are a common practice dating to 2002, KSN reported.
State Rep. Melissa Oropeza of Kansas City, Kansas, raised concerns about the distribution of monitors. More than half of the 13 Kansas monitors went to Wyandotte County.
"When more than half of all federal election observers assigned to Kansas are sent to one county, it raises legitimate concerns about disparate treatment and the message being sent to our community," Oropeza said in a statement, according to KCUR.
Oropeza said on the morning of Nov. 3 that she had been in contact with poll watchers and they reported no interference from DOJ monitors so far, KCUR reported.
Gov. Laura Kelly said Kansas officials had been aware of the monitoring plan and were coordinating with the secretary of state's office and other agencies. "Things are different now in our country than they've been before," Kelly said, according to KSN. She added that she expected Kansas to have "safe and secure elections like we always have in Kansas."
The monitors are to identify themselves as federal representatives and may ask voters leaving the polls about their voting experience, according to KCUR. In St. Louis, the DOJ told the Board of Elections that its monitors would remain outside and 50 feet or more from polling places, St. Louis Public Radio reported, according to KCUR.
Some voting rights groups, including the NAACP, said they believe the deployment could suppress turnout, particularly among minority voters, according to USA Today. The ACLU trained more than 300 poll monitors in Kansas to watch for interference, KWCH reported.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jared Maag, the district election officer for Kansas, is available at (785) 295-2850 while polls are open, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Kansas. The DOJ's election issues hotline is 1-800-253-3931.
