FEDERAL OBSERVERS TO MONITOR UTAH ELECTION

WASHINGTON, D.C.- The Justice Department will send 20 federal observers to monitor the primary election in San Juan County, Utah on Tuesday, June 25, 2002.

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 San Juan County by the U.S. District Court in Utah in a consent decree between the Justice Department and San Juan County originally entered by the parties in 1984 and partially extended in 1998. Information provided by the federal observers will assist the Justice Department in efforts to ensure that all written election materials are translated orally into Navajo for voters whose primary language is Navajo and that the county has adequately trained poll workers to assist those voters.

The observers, who are supervised by OPM, will watch and record activities during voting hours at select polling locations in the county. Two Justice Department attorneys will coordinate the federal activities and maintain contact with local election officials.

To file 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.

More information about the Voting Rights Act and other federal voting laws is available on the Department of Justice Internet site at http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/voting.

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