What DOJ Election Observers Do in Practice

As it’s filled election security roles at the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice, the Trump administration has elevated people who are known election deniers — activists who’ve pushed unproven claims about fraud in the 2020 election or in American election systems more generally.

And the administration has asked states to turn over voter roll data that includes private information. It’s even sued eight of them for some of that data in an unprecedented push for federal control of voter information.

How are the systems and processes behind the 2026 midterm faring in 2025? Especially as the federal government pushes to have more control over what’s traditionally been the jurisdiction of state and local officials? We hear one of those officials as well as a panel of experts.

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