JUSTICE DEPARTMENT TO MONITOR ELECTIONS IN ARIZONA

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Justice Department today announced that it will monitor the September 7 primary election in Apache, Cochise, Gila, Graham, Maricopa, Navajo, Santa Cruz, and Yuma Counties, Arizona to ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act.

The Voting Rights Act authorizes the Justice Department to ask the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to send federal observers to areas that are specially covered in the Act itself or by a federal court order. Federal observers will be assigned to monitor polling place activities in Apache, Navajo, and Yuma Counties pursuant to the special coverage provisions. In addition, Civil Rights Division personnel will monitor the elections in Cochise, Gila, Graham, Maricopa, and Santa Cruz Counties.

Federal law requires that jurisdictions with a substantial minority-language voter population provide certain voting materials, such as ballots, registration or voting notices, forms, instructions, or other materials in the minority language as well as in English. According to determinations made by the Census Bureau, each of the monitored counties has an obligation to provide voting information in Spanish and/or one or more American Indian languages.

Each year, the Department of Justice deploys hundreds of observers and attorneys to monitor elections across the country. In 2002, the Division coordinated and sent 608 federal observers and 221 Justice Department personnel to 40 counties in 17 states to monitor 60 elections and ensure access to the polls. In 2003, the Division coordinated and sent 380 federal observers and 136 Department personnel to monitor 42 elections in 26 political subdivisions in 14 states.

To file complaints about discriminatory voting practices, including acts of harassment or intimidation, voters may call 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.

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