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WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In an effort to ensure the integrity of the voting process and to ensure that the rights of minority voters are respected, the Justice Department will dispatch 30 federal officials to monitor Tuesday's elections in Passaic County, New Jersey.

Under the Voting Rights Act, which protects the rights of all Americans to participate in the electoral process, the Justice Department is authorized to ask the Office of Personnel Management to send federal observers to areas that are specially covered in the Act. Observers were authorized in Passaic County by court order on June 4, 1999, as a result of a consent decree which was filed in the U.S. District Court in Newark on June 2, 1999.

In Passaic County, 25 observers will monitor polling places to ensure that all written election materials are translated into Spanish, that the county has adequately trained poll workers to assist voters with disabilities or voters whose primary language is Spanish, and that Hispanic and Spanish speaking voters have full and equal access to the voting process. Information the observers obtain also will help Justice Department lawyers to assess the County's compliance with federal law obligations to make information about voting available in the Spanish language at other stages of the election process.

The observers, who speak Spanish and are supervised by OPM, will watch and record activities during voting hours at the polling locations. Five legal personnel from the Justice Department Civil Rights Division will be in Passaic to coordinate the federal activities and maintain contact with local election officials.

To lodge complaints about discriminatory voting practices, voters may call the Voting Rights Examiner at 1-888-496-9455 through Thursday, June 10, 1998. In addition, at any time complaints of discriminatory voting practices may be made to the Voting Section of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division at 1-800-253-3931.

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***NOTE: Reporters who wish to contact someone from the Office of Public Affairs can call Christine DiBartolo at (202)514-5000.

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