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FEDERAL OBSERVERS DISPATCHED TO MONITOR

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Justice Department will dispatch 28 federal observers to Passaic County, New Jersey to monitor the school board elections on Tuesday, April 17, 2001.

Under the Voting Rights Act, which protects the rights of Americans to participate in the electoral process without discrimination, the Justice Department is authorized to ask the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to send federal observers to areas that are covered by a court order. Observers were authorized for Passaic County by the U.S. District Court in Newark on June 4, 1999, in a consent decree between the Justice Department and Passaic County. The consent decree also requires a Spanish-language outreach and publicity plan.

The observers, who are supervised by OPM, will watch and record activities during voting hours at select polling locations in the county. Three Justice Department attorneys will be in New Jersey to coordinate the federal activities and maintain contact with local election officials. Information provided by the federal observers will help the Justice Department in efforts to ensure that all written election materials are translated into Spanish, that the county has adequately trained poll workers to assist voters whose primary language is Spanish, and that Hispanic and Spanish-speaking voters have full and equal access to the voting process.

To lodge complaints about discriminatory voting practices in this election, voters may call the federal examiner at 1-888-496-9455. At all times, complaints about discriminatory voting practices may be called in to the Voting Section of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division at 1-800-253-3931.