ATLANTA, Ga. — Federal observers from the U.S. Department of Justice will be inside polling places in six Georgia counties on Election Day, local election offices have confirmed after receiving notice letters from the department.
The counties are Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb and Gwinnett in metro Atlanta, along with Chatham County, home to Savannah, and Macon-Bibb County. All six leaned heavily Democratic in 2024, when each voted against Donald Trump. Five of them also had federal monitors that year under the previous administration; Chatham is the newcomer to the list.
Sending monitors is a long-standing practice. The department has watched Georgia elections, and those in other states, for decades to check that polling sites follow federal voting rights and access laws. What stands out this year is the size of the effort, which tops a thousand monitors across the country and has drawn worry from Democrats.
State and county election officials have said publicly they are not concerned and see the monitors as part of a transparent process. A former Justice Department civil rights attorney who now runs an election research group has said the new letters are far less specific than ones sent in past cycles.
It is still not known which individual polling places will get visitors on Tuesday. Separately, the Carter Center, which is based in Atlanta and has watched elections around the world, will deploy observers of its own, many to the same locations the federal monitors are expected to cover.
Monitors are expected to watch passively and not interfere with voting. Polls open statewide at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. on Nov. 3.
Section: More Atlanta GA politics news
Filed under: Atlanta GA Politics News
