SALT LAKE CITY — The U.S. Department of Justice will deploy election monitors to Utah for the upcoming mid-term elections, Lt. Governor Deidre Henderson announced on Thursday.
The Lt. Governor — who is Utah's chief elections officer — disclosed that she had received a letter informing her that election monitors would be deployed on Nov. 3. A copy of the letter was shared with FOX 13 News on Thursday.
"The monitoring by the Civil Rights Division is done in the same way as in the past. Our monitors only observe and take notes. They do not intrude or interfere in any way in the voting process. Monitors will introduce themselves to the poll manager and present government ID (and a letter from the jurisdiction permitting entrance to the polls with the monitors names, if the jurisdiction wants each monitor identified)," the letter said.
The DOJ did not immediately respond to an email from FOX 13 News seeking comment on the deployment of election monitors. Lt. Gov. Henderson said she has directed county clerks to cooperate with instructions on how to handle the monitors.
"The Department of Justice has in the past sent election monitors around the country. Not to this scale and scope, I don’t think," she told reporters on Thursday.
Henderson will go 'as far as I need to' defending Utah voters' private info:
While Lt. Gov. Henderson said she does not know what the DOJ's election monitors are looking for, she has received some assurances.
"They won’t be approaching voters. They won’t be wearing any sort of insignia. They have said they’ll give us any feedback after the election is over on any challenges or issues that they saw. I think things will be pretty normal. I want to make sure voters are calm and you know, things are going to be OK," she said.
Salt Lake County Clerk Lannie Chapman told FOX 13 News she will treat the DOJ monitors "like any other observer."
"They will be required to follow state and federal law," she said.
Chapman said she received a letter from Justice Department officials and the code cited suggested they will be monitoring to ensure language access for voters.
"We want to make sure frankly at the end of the day this is about voters," she said. "Making sure voters have a meaningful opportunity to have their voices heard."
Early voting is under way in Utah and on Thursday, the Salt Lake County Clerk's Office saw a surge in people showing up to cast their ballots. Voters that FOX 13 News spoke with who were dropping off mail-in ballots or voting in person said they were not supportive of the DOJ's efforts.
"It’s kind of irritating you know?" said Mike Baxter. "It wasn’t an issue before, back in 2020. Trump made this an issue."
Jerry Ford said "there's no need."
"Deidre Henderson is doing an awesome job," he added.
Some voter rights groups expressed concerns about the DOJ's intent and announced plans to monitor the monitors.
"The League of Women Voters has been working alongside the ACLU on election protection issues. Already, some 85 people have been trained as poll watchers, as we have been anticipating this sort of election interference. As a red state with robust vote-by-mail, we now realize no state is immune," Katharine Biele, the president of the League of Women Voters of Utah, told FOX 13 News.
Stewardship Utah said it fully supported Lt. Gov. Henderson and her office.
"We know elections in Utah are safe and secure because of the work she and her staff put in every year. We commend her for continuing to uphold the Utah and U.S. Constitutions," the group said in a statement.
It is not unprecedented for the DOJ to have election monitors in Utah. In prior elections in San Juan County, monitors were sent there in response to voter litigation related to Navajo voters. But this is unusual in the scale and scope across the country. Other states have also been informed they will be hosting election monitors.
Lt. Gov. Henderson has been sued by the Trump administration for refusing to hand over voters' private information as part of an ongoing push for "election integrity" (she has countered that state and federal law forbid it). She has also been threatened with criminal prosecution. Earlier this week, the Lt. Governor's Office was the intended target of a suspicious piece of mail containing white powder. The U.S. postal inspector intercepted the package and forwarded it to the FBI.
Numerous audits have found Utah's elections are safe, secure and have minimal instances of fraudulent voting. The DOJ has lost every single lawsuit it has filed against a state seeking voter rolls and protected information.
"I think that they are looking just overall, how elections are being run, make sure things are on the up and up. You know what? They are in Utah. We have open processes, the public can go watch any of these processes. Frankly, I welcome that. I welcome people looking and examining. What I don’t welcome is any kind of interference," Lt. Gov. Henderson said.
Lt. Gov. Henderson said if voters have concerns? There is a simple solution.
"If people are worried about going to an in-person polling location, they can fill out their ballots at home and drop them in a dropbox. And I encourage more people do that," she said. "Honestly, if we have more people voting early and getting those ballots processed early? We’ll have more robust results on Election Night anyway, so vote early."
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