FEDERAL OBSERVERS TO MONITOR ELECTIONS IN MISSISSIPPI

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Justice Department today announced that it will send federal observers to several Mississippi counties to monitor the primary elections tomorrow, August 5, 2003. The counties include Kemper, Leake, Neshoba and Newton.

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

Federal observers will watch and record activities during voting hours at polling locations that serve members of the Mississippi Choctaw Tribe. Information provided by the federal observers, many of whom are bilingual in English and Choctaw, will assist the Justice Department in efforts to ensure that all election information is translated orally into the Choctaw language for voters who speak it as their primary language. 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, including acts of harassment or intimidation, 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 website at www.usdoj.gov/crt/voting/index.htm <http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/voting.>.

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