FEDERAL OBSERVERS TO MONITOR MICHIGAN ELECTION

WASHINGTON, D.C.- The Justice Department will send 32 federal observers to monitor the primary election in Hamtramck, Michigan on Tuesday, August 6, 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.

The federal observers will monitor the treatment of Arab-American voters to ensure that they have full and equal access to the voting process and that they are not being targeted by poll-workers or poll-challengers because of their race or ethnicity.

Observers were authorized for Hamtramck by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan on August 7, 2000 in a consent decree between the Justice Department and the City of Hamtramck.

The observers, who are supervised by OPM, will watch and record activities during voting hours at select polling locations in the city. Two Justice Department attorneys will coordinate the federal activities and maintain contact with local election officials.

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 referred 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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