JUSTICE DEPARTMENT TO MONITOR ELECTIONS IN
LOUISIANA, MISSISSIPPI AND TEXAS

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Justice Department today announced plans to monitor primary elections in three states on Tuesday, March 9th. R. Alexander Acosta, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights announced plans to send federal observers to six counties in Mississippi, and to send Civil Rights Division personnel to two parishes in Louisiana, three counties in Texas and another county in Mississippi.

The Voting Rights Act authorizes the Department of Justice to ask the Office of Personnel Management to send federal observers to areas specially covered by the Act itself or by a federal court order under the Act. Such observers watch and record activities during voting hours at select polling locations. Federal observers will be assigned to monitor polling place activities in Jones, Kemper, Leake, Neshoba, Newton and Winston Counties, Mississippi.

Separately, the Civil Rights Division will send Department of Justice personnel to monitor election day activities in East Baton Rouge and Tangipahoa Parishes, Louisiana; Harris, Tarrant and Waller Counties, Texas; and Noxubee County, Mississippi. They will monitor for compliance with various provisions of the Voting Rights Act.

In addition to the Voting Rights Act, this year’s primaries are the first elections during which certain provisions of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 are effective. Accordingly, Division staff will additionally monitor compliance with those provisions.

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.

More information about the Voting Rights Act and other federal voting laws is available on the Department of Justice website at www.usdoj.gov/crt/voting/index.htm.

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