The State of Texas is instructing federal officials to stay out of its election process. That came down in a note late Friday from the Secretary of State in response to the Department of Justice’s announcement that it planned to send poll monitors to eight Texas counties, including Dallas County on Tuesday. NBC 5’s Allie Spillyards explains the history behind the process.
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In the final countdown to election day, a dispute is underway in Texas.
Late Friday, Secretary of State Jane Nelson issued a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice, saying its staff is not allowed in Texas polling places.
“Texas law is clear,” she wrote. “Justice Department monitors are not permitted inside a polling place where ballots are being cast or a central counting station where ballots are being counted.”
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Her response came just hours after the DOJ announced 86 locations across 27 states where it plans to send monitors on November 5th to check for compliance with federal voting laws.
Eight Texas counties — including Atascosa, Bexar, Dallas, Frio, Harris, Hays, Palo Pinto and Waller — were on the list.
“There’s a long history here, and it goes back to the Voting Rights Act passed in the 1960s,” said appellate lawyer David Coale.
Coale, a constitutional law expert, said the practice first began to prevent discrimination against minorities.
The DOJ continued to send monitors to states of its choosing until 2013 when the Supreme Court ruled that states have the right to tell the federal government no.
Until recently, few did.
“As a matter of practice, people have generally been fairly receptive to that, because most election officials are kind of proud of their work and want to show off that they're doing it well. But as things have gotten more politically charged in our country about elections the last couple of elections, a lot of states are pushing back on that,” said Coale.
Federal monitors visited counties in Texas as recently as 2022.
This year Texas isn’t alone in telling the DOJ to stay away.
It joins others like Florida and Missouri, which Coale said the law allows.
“Frankly, I think it's kind of healthy that we have a little skirmishing between the federal and state government here because there's room for difference of opinion about how to conduct our elections. And I think it's probably healthy to not just have one branch of government come in and tell everybody how to do it, unless there's some compelling reason like the Voting Rights Act for so many years,” he said.
In her letter, Nelson told the DOJ to “rest assured that Texas has robust processes and procedures in place to ensure that eligible voters may participate in a free and fair election.”
