As part of its duties to enforce federal voting rights laws, the Justice Department announced Monday that it will be in the field in 64 jurisdictions spread across 24 states for the midterm elections. The Post-Dispatch and the League of Women Voters of Metro St. Louis presents this guide to the candidates and races on the Nov. 8 ballot. The lone location in Missouri is Cole County, home to the city of Jefferson and the state Capitol. But Cole County Clerk Steve Korsmeyer said no to field visits to polling places. Ashcroft, a Republican who plans to run for governor in 2024, supports him, accusing the federal government of trying to “intimidate” workers in local elections.
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“While the U.S. Department of Justice could clearly learn a lot from Missouri about nonpartisanship and how to administer accessible, secure, and reliable elections, it would be highly inappropriate for federal agents to break the law by intimidating Missouri voters at the polls on election day. Ashcroft said in a tweet on Monday. Ashcroft spokesman JoDonn Chaney said DOJ officials met with the Secretary of State’s lawyers on Monday, but did not say whether a resolution had been reached. He said Justice Department officials have not told Ashcroft why they want to visit polling places. “They tell us we have complaints about you, but they don’t tell us what they are,” Chaney said. “Whatever the matter is, tell us what it is. But they don’t do that. How can we fix it if we don’t know what the problem is?” Korsmeyer, who did not respond to a request for comment, received a letter from the department in October saying it had received complaints alleging the clerk’s office “failed to provide an accessible voting machine at every polling place during past elections.” . The letter said the Justice Department is opening an investigation into the allegations. This is not the first time that the Ministry of Justice appoints observers during elections. In 2001, for example, Ashcroft’s father, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, also a Republican, oversaw a voting integrity initiative in the wake of the disputed 2000 presidential election. Along with the Oct. 27 letter, Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles M. Thomas requested a meeting with Korsmeyer on Thursday to outline a plan for attorneys working with the Justice Department’s disability rights division to visit and monitor polling places in and around Jefferson City on Tuesday . “Please be assured that we understand that you will be managing the election and we will try to minimize the time we spend at each location,” Thomas wrote in an email. On Monday, a spokesman for the department said he had nothing to add to a Justice Department press release describing the nationwide monitoring effort, which he describes as routine activity for the agency around election time. The plan comes two weeks after U.S. attorneys across the nation outlined their goals to keep the 2022 general election from being marred by the same false allegations of voter fraud that marred the 2020 election and have been repeatedly pushed by former President Donald Trump and other Republicans. the preparation of this year’s competitions. Theresa Moore, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, issued a statement in October that voting is the cornerstone of American democracy. “We must all ensure that those entitled to the franchise can exercise it if they choose, and that those who seek to corrupt it are brought to justice,” Moore said. Federal law protects against crimes such as threatening violence against election officials or staff, intimidating or bribing voters, buying and selling votes, impersonating voters, altering vote counts, stuffing ballot boxes, and marking ballots for involuntary voters with or without their input. Federal law also includes protections for voters’ rights and provides that they can vote without interference, including intimidation, and other acts intended to prevent or discourage people from voting or voting for the candidate of their choice. But Ashcroft said that under Missouri law, the local election authority has the power to decide who, other than voters and poll workers, can be at the polls. At the same time, the US Attorney’s Office is authorized under federal law to determine whether an employee is in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and can determine whether it can be voluntarily corrected or whether legal action should be taken. In an email to the Missouri Independent on Monday, Korsmeyer said he is not backing down. “The Department of Justice will not be allowed into our polling places,” Korsmeyer wrote.
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