Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd’s Office says the U.S. Department of Justice has no right to go inside polling locations.
The DOJ wants federal observers inside South Florida polling places, but Byrd’s office said that would violate the law and disrupt elections.
“As a result, Florida’s State Department will send its own observers to those counties and ensure federal officials do not disrupt elections taking place today,” Florida Politics reports.
Byrd’s Office released this response that alluded to letters received in three counties:
“The Florida Department of State received copies of your letters to Miami-Dade and Broward Counties in which you seem to indicate that the Department of Justice will send monitors inside polling places in these counties,” reads a letter from Brad McVay, General Counsel to the Florida Department of State.
“We also understand you sent a similar letter to Palm Beach County.”
Joe Biden tried to send federal Gestapo agents to Florida to "monitor" our elections.
No reason given. Just federal agents in polling places. Totally normal!
So Florida's Sec of State kicked the DOJ so hard in the nutsack they will have to pee sitting down for the next month: pic.twitter.com/tzrMdVxmqG
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) November 8, 2022
Florida Politics reported:
The Department of Justice announced it would send election monitors to locations in 24 states. They will go to 64 jurisdictions, including the three South Florida counties mentioned in McVay’s letter. Justice officials said they will be there to enforce civil rights provisions of federal law protecting access to voting.
“Monitors will include personnel from the Civil Rights Division and from U.S. Attorneys’ Offices. In addition, the division also deploys monitors from the Office of Personnel Management, where authorized by federal court order. Division personnel will also maintain contact with state and local election officials,” reads a release from the Justice Department. “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 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.”
Notably, early and absentee voting in the counties has shown signs Democrats could perform poorly, which could have electoral consequences in statewide races for U.S. Senate and in two critical U.S. House elections in Miami-Dade County. The race for Governor also will be decided today.
As of 8 a.m. Tuesday morning, 191,428 Republicans had voted in the county compared to 185,645 Democrats and 115,164 other voters, according to Fresh Take Florida’s voter tracking database.
CNN added:
The Florida Department of State will send its own monitors to the three jurisdictions, according to the letter, to “ensure that there is no interference with the voting process.”
Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd, an appointee of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is running for reelection, told reporters Tuesday morning that the request by DOJ to go inside polling places was a deviation from years past when the agency sent monitors to Florida. The DOJ under former President Donald Trump sent monitors to six Florida counties in 2020, but Byrd said they kept tabs from outside the polling location.
“This is not to be confrontational in any way,” Byrd said. “They sent a letter to the counties asking for permission to be in the polling places. We told them that under state law, that is not permitted, and we asked them to respect state law, and that they can go there and do their job, but they have to do that job outside of the polling place.”
Asked why the state didn’t send a similar letter in 2020 when Trump’s DOJ monitored six Florida counties, Byrd said there was no change in policy.
“The difference this time was that the DOJ wanted to, in their initial letter, they wanted to have monitors inside the polling places,” Byrd said, adding that “they can certainly be outside of the polling place.”
The Justice Department told CNN it has received the letter but declined to comment.
Nationwide, federal monitors include personnel from the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division and from its US Attorneys’ Offices, who will deploy across the country and field nationwide complaints.
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