The U.S. Justice Department will be closely watching Tuesday's election in seven Michigan communities.
The Department’s Civil Rights Division plans to have personnel in 44 jurisdictions in 18 states to monitor for compliance with the federal voting rights laws.
The Civil Rights Division enforces the federal voting rights laws that protect the rights of all citizens to access the ballot. Since the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, the division has regularly monitored in a variety of elections around the country throughout every year to protect the rights of all voters, and not just in federal general elections.
In Michigan, Justice Department officials will be in Detroit, Flint. Jackson, Eastpointe, Shelby Township, Highland Park and Hamtramck.
“Every federal election year, the Department makes a new assessment of where the Department should be, and send out staff based on that assessment for that year,” says Alison Kjergaard, a DOJ spokeswoman.
Kjergaard declined to say why specific communities were chosen to be put under the federal microscope.
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