This is a developing story that will be updated.
The U.S. Department of Justice is sending election monitors to Utah ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms.
Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson announced on social media that her office was notified that monitors would be headed to the state. She wrote there has been "no indication of where or how many."
In her post, Henderson outlined that monitors will be required to follow state poll watcher laws and won't have identifying badges or insignia. Henderson noted that monitors will identify themselves to poll workers, won't contact voters and will not be armed, either overtly or with concealed weapons.
"They're not allowed to interfere in any way," she said in her post.
KUER has reached out to Henderson's office for additional information.
State law says poll watchers can observe virtually every aspect of the voting process, including voter check-in at a polling place, the transportation of ballots and ballot counting. Poll watchers may not interfere with any part of voting — except to challenge the eligibility of a voter — or record any information that could violate Utah's right to a secret ballot or divulge counts before the county clerk.
Anyone who violates those rules is guilty of a third-degree felony.
Other states across the country have received similar notifications. NPR reporting indicates that at least Colorado, Florida, Minnesota, Texas and Washington will also have federal election monitors.
Although it is not unusual for the DOJ to monitor elections, the notifications come against the backdrop of intense election pressure by the Trump administration. The president pushed for early redistricting in some states, has attacked mail ballots, despite using them himself, and pushed hard on the SAVE Act. Some in Congress, including Utah Sen. Mike Lee, joined that push for strict voter-ID laws. Those efforts have yet to gain traction.
Henderson has fiercely defended Utah's almost exclusively mail-in ballot election system. She has clashed with the administration over requests for voter rolls and a controversial executive order that aims to reshape how vote-by-mail operates. Both of those efforts have been halted — for now — in the courts. The lieutenant governor is also the target of a DOJ investigation and has been sent threatening letters.
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