The U.S. Department of Justice sent federal election monitors to Milwaukee and Madison on Tuesday, Nov. 3, as part of what it called its largest monitoring operation ever. Kenosha County was not among the Wisconsin jurisdictions on the department's list.

The deployment put approximately 1,000 monitors and observers in all 50 states for the first time, according to a DOJ press release. The effort is coordinated by the department's Civil Rights Division.

The scale marks a sharp increase. The department monitored 86 jurisdictions across 27 states in the 2024 presidential election, according to Axios. In 2022, 289 monitors were deployed, and 714 were deployed in 2024, Newsweek reported.

Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe said the federal presence is nothing out of the ordinary, according to Wisconsin Public Radio.

"In Wisconsin we've always had federal observers from U.S. DOJ," Wolfe said.

Wolfe said she believes fewer than 10 DOJ observers were assigned to the state, which she said tracks with past practice. She said it is not unusual for Madison and Milwaukee, the state's largest cities, to be the focus.

Paulina Gutiérrez, Milwaukee Elections Commission executive director, said DOJ and Congressional observers were at Milwaukee polls on Nov. 3 and there were no reported problems. Gutiérrez said observers agreed to follow Wisconsin observer rules after a meeting the prior week.

Kenosha County sits in Wisconsin's 1st Congressional District, where Republican U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil faced Democrat Mitchell Berman in one of the state's most competitive races. The DOJ's published list did not include Kenosha among its monitored jurisdictions.

National debate over expanded monitoring

The operation drew criticism from voting-rights groups. The NAACP sued to stop the monitoring program, alleging in its lawsuit that the department lacks authority to enforce state and county-level voting rules, including verifying voter citizenship, according to USA Today.

Election authorities in at least five states restricted, challenged or prepared additional oversight of the federal operation, Newsweek reported. Officials in Indiana, Kentucky, Washington County in Arkansas, and Hennepin and Ramsey counties in Minnesota said DOJ monitors cannot enter polling places without legal authorization or local permission.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Civil Rights Division said in the DOJ release: "I am very proud we are deploying the largest monitoring effort in DOJ history, and pursuing transparency for elections in an assertive and nondiscriminatory manner."

In an Oct. 28 court filing, the department said FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel would not serve as monitors, according to Newsweek. Monitors include employees from the Federal Bureau of Prisons, ATF, DEA and CBP. The department said monitors would not carry firearms or exercise law enforcement authority, according to court filings.

DOJ spokeswoman Kiersten Pels said the department prioritizes jurisdictions required to provide language assistance and areas with a shortage of election observation data, USA Today reported. Pels said all observers are trained on state and local laws and authorized only to monitor, document and report on compliance with federal voting laws.

Voters with questions or complaints about federal voting rights can call the DOJ's election hotline at 1-800-253-3931.