It may just be that ol’ Southern hospitality. But for one reason or another, federal election monitors are slated to return to Alamance County for this year’s general election.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Alamance County will be one of 86 localities in 27 states where federal election monitors will be on hand when voters go to the polls Tuesday.
In a news release Friday, the DOJ named Wake and Mecklenburg counties, the state’s two largest, as the only other two jurisdictions in North Carolina that will be subject to this same level of in-person federal oversight during this year’s election.
Both Alamance and Mecklenburg had also played host to federal monitors in 2022, although the DOJ hasn’t made clear why either of these counties have been selected for return visits this year.
The DOJ notes that its civil rights division dispatches election observers to communities throughout the U.S. to ensure that they comply with federal laws such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the more recent Help America Vote Act.
In a few cases, these monitors are sent out in response to federal court orders, although the DOJ identifies just five places across the country that are currently under such orders – and none of them happens to be located in North Carolina. The DOJ also allows members of the public to ask the federal agency to dispatch election monitors to particular communities.
Dawn Hurdle, the county’s elections director, said that a request from the public may very well explain why Alamance County was once again selected for in-person supervision this year.
“Supposedly, somebody asked them, and it was just a random drawing,” Hurdle explained in an interview Monday. “I spoke to someone from the DOJ, and they didn’t give me a reason why we were selected. But they will have four teams here, and they will go around to all 39 precincts.”
