Butler County currently not target of federal election monitors
Amid reports the Department of Justice is sending election monitors to Pennsylvania, Butler County is not aware of any being sent to its polling locations, according to Chantell McCurdy, the elections bureau director.
But the bureau is still giving guidance to election workers should there be any presence.
As of now, the DOJ plans to send election monitors to Allegheny, Philadelphia, Luzerne and Lehigh counties. A letter from the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division was sent last week to state officials notifying them monitors will be present at polling places.
The presence of election monitors in the four Pennsylvania counties is part of a nationwide effort by the Department of Justice. Historically, attorneys and staff with the Civil Rights Division have served as monitors, with assistance from U.S. attorney’s offices.
CBS News reported in August that the DOJ sent just under 300 monitors to polling places in the 2022 elections. For the presidential election in 2024, roughly 700 were sent to “monitor compliance with federal voting laws across 27 states in 86 jurisdictions.”
But next Tuesday’s elections will see a significant increase. Bloomberg reported weeks ago the DOJ plans to deploy over 1,000 monitors spread across all 50 states.
“We are not a county that has been alerted it is going to be monitored,” McCurdy said Wednesday.
The letter sent to state officials claims that election monitors will only observe and take notes and will not intrude or interfere with the voting process.
While Butler County does not anticipate federal election monitors, McCurdy said election workers are being advised to treat them as they would anyone else, should monitors be present.
“What we are advising our poll workers, and what we are doing as an office, is if they show up, we are to treat them like any other monitor, anybody else that wants to show up,” McCurdy said. “In that, they can’t come into certain areas, they can’t talk to voters, they can’t disrupt the voting process. If they are disruptive, the judge of elections will ask them to leave. And if not, we’ll escalate it from there.”
McCurdy said on Election Day, her office keeps an open line of communication with Butler County’s emergency services department for a variety of reasons, as well as the district attorney, the courts, the county sheriff’s office, the county’s attorney, its commissioners and its chief clerk.
“We have a regular call that we have on election days and we are able to get in touch with each other at a moment’s notice if needed,” McCurdy said. “If there is an issue we are alerted to in any way, we are all on top of it.”
“We are always prepared, but fingers crossed that the election is quiet. That’s always the goal,” she added.
