The Department of Justice deployed about 1,000 election monitors across all 50 states on Tuesday, Nov. 3, marking the largest federal voting oversight effort in U.S. history.

Seven Texas counties are on the DOJ's monitoring list: Bexar, Blanco, Bowie, Dallas, Harris, Nueces and Waller, according to the department's announcement. Galveston County, where League City voters headed to the polls Tuesday, is not among them.

Harris County, which borders Galveston County to the north, is the closest monitored jurisdiction to League City.

The effort is coordinated by the DOJ's Civil Rights Division. Monitors include personnel from the division, U.S. Attorney's Offices and federal observers from the Office of Personnel Management, the department said. They will check for compliance with federal voting rights laws, including the Voting Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Help America Vote Act and the National Voter Registration Act.

Monitors will also watch for potential violations of criminal laws prohibiting voter intimidation or suppression based on race, color, national origin or religion, the department said.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, who leads the Civil Rights Division, said in a statement that election integrity has been a top priority for the administration and the division.

Federal election monitoring is not new. The DOJ has sent monitors to polling places since the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965, but the scope of Tuesday's deployment is unprecedented. Under President Biden in the 2022 midterms, the department monitored 64 jurisdictions in 24 states, Houston Public Media reported.

Derek Muller, an election law professor at the University of Notre Dame, told Houston Public Media that monitors' role is largely observational. They can watch how elections are conducted, document potential violations and report findings to the DOJ. Monitors do not run elections, decide which ballots count or certify results.

The deployment has drawn legal challenges. The NAACP and other civil rights groups sued the DOJ, arguing the presence of federal law enforcement officers around polling places could intimidate voters, Houston Public Media reported.

In 2024, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the current Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, went to court to block Biden-era DOJ monitors from entering polling and counting locations. Paxton said in a Nov. 5, 2024, statement that the DOJ "knows it has no authority to monitor Texas elections and backed down when Texas stood up for the rule of law."

What League City voters should know

Voters who experience accessibility issues or civil rights concerns at the polls can call the DOJ's election hotline at 1-800-253-3931 or email [email protected]. ADA-related questions can go to 1-800-514-0301.

Galveston County voters can also reach the Galveston County Elections office at 409-770-5108 or the Galveston County Clerk's Office at 409-766-2200. Polls across Texas are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.