‘Jackbooted Thugs’: Missouri, Florida Deny DOJ Election Monitors Access to Polling Stations

Since the 1965 Voting Rights Act outlawed discriminatory election practices that had suppressed the Black vote for decades, federal election monitors have ensured compliance in districts across the country. However, the Supreme Court gutted much of the law in 2013, claiming it was no longer relevant.

The states of Missouri and Florida have attempted to prevent US Department of Justice election monitors from carrying out inspections at several polling locations in both states, claiming federal officials will do exactly what they are there to prevent from happening: scaring voters away from the polls.

After the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division on Monday announced a list of 64 jurisdictions across the United States where it would “monitor for compliance with the federal voting rights laws,” the governments of Florida and Missouri protested.

“The Civil Rights Division’s Voting Section enforces the civil provisions of federal statutes that protect the right to vote, including the Voting Rights Act, the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, the National Voter Registration Act, the Help America Vote Act and the Civil Rights Acts,” the DOJ notice said.

“The division’s Disability Rights Section enforces the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to ensure that persons with disabilities have a full and equal opportunity to vote. The division’s Criminal Section enforces federal criminal statutes that prohibit voter intimidation and voter suppression based on race, color, national origin or religion,” it added.

“This is not the Voting Rights Act. This is the Americans With Disabilities Act. What’s next? They’re going to want to be at elections because they want to check that insulation in the building was purchased from China in the 1970s? Give me a break,” Missouri Secretary of State John Ashcroft told the Washington Post.

Ashcroft, whose father served as US Attorney General under President George W. Bush, compared the DOJ officials to “jackbooted thugs” and to groups of armed far-right militiamen who positioned themselves outside of polling places in Arizona last week.

The ADA ensures disabled people have equal access to public facilities, including to polling stations. A lengthy checklist lays out the requirements for voting areas, including elevators or ramps as necessary to get around stairs, clearly-labeled accessibility areas, voting booths that can be accessed by people in wheelchairs, and dedicated parking spaces, among other standards.

Ashcroft’s office tweeted a further reply to the DOJ that “the local election authority is empowered to decide who, other than voters and poll workers, may be at polling locations. Cole County Clerk Steve Korsmeyer has rightfully declined to allow this over-reach and the secretary of state’s office fully supports him.”

Florida gave the DOJ an almost identical response, with Brad McVay, the chief counsel for the Florida Department of State, telling the DOJ in a letter that state-level laws precluded the federal government from checking voting jurisdictions for compliance with federal voting laws.

“Florida statutes list the people who ‘may enter any polling room or polling place,’” McVay wrote. “Department of Justice personnel are not included on the list.”

“Absent some evidence concerning the need for federal intrusion, or some federal statute that preempts Florida law, the presence of federal law enforcement inside polling places would be counterproductive and could potentially undermine confidence in the election,” the counsel added.

“None of the counties are currently subject to any election-related federal consent decrees,” McVay added. “None of the counties have been accused of violating the rights of language or racial minorities or of the elderly or disabled.”

However, the Biden administration may have good reason to be concerned. The Sunshine State has developed a reputation for limiting ballot access, including by purging tens of thousands of voters from voter rolls and restricting ballot box sites.

The federal government began inspecting and monitoring voting sites after passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The law banned discriminatory voting practices, such as poll taxes, literacy tests, and other methods used for decades to suppress the vote of Black Americans across the South under what was colloquially called the “Jim Crow” system of racial apartheid.

In the Shelby County vs. Holder case in 2013, the US Supreme Court struck down a key part of the 1965 law that required districts with a history of discrimination in voting to obtain permission from the federal government before changing their voting laws or practices. In the years that have followed, essentially all changes to voting laws have been made by Republicans and have resulted in the closing of more than 1,000 polling stations, virtually all of them in areas with prominent Black voting populations.