FEDERAL OBSERVERS TO MONITOR NEW JERSEY ELECTIONS

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Justice Department will send 25 federal observers to monitor the school board elections in Passaic County, New Jersey on Tuesday, April 16, 2002.

Under the Voting Rights Act, which protects the rights of Americans to participate in the electoral process without discrimination, the Justice Department is authorized to ask the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to send federal observers to areas that are covered by a court order.

Observers were authorized for Passaic County by the U.S. District Court in Newark on June 4, 1999, in a consent decree between the Justice Department and Passaic County. The federal District Court also ordered into effect a Spanish-language Outreach and Publicity Plan that was required by the 1999 consent decree.

The observers, who are supervised by OPM, will watch and record activities during voting hours at select polling locations in the county. Six Justice Department attorneys will coordinate the federal activities and maintain contact with local election officials. Information provided by the federal observers will assist the Justice Department in efforts to ensure that all written election materials are translated into Spanish, that the county has adequately trained poll workers to assist voters whose primary language is Spanish, and that Hispanic and Spanish-speaking voters have full and equal access to the voting process.

To file complaints about discriminatory voting practices in this election, voters may call the federal examiner at 1-888-496-9455. At all times, complaints about discriminatory voting practices may be called in to the Voting Section of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division at 1-800-253-3931.

More information about the Voting Rights Act and other federal voting laws is available on the Department of Justice Internet site at http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/voting.

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