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Advocacy Blog
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Criminal Prosecutors Will Not Be Stationed at Polls on Election Day
Following complaints from civil rights groups, the Justice Department announced on September 23 that it will not station criminal prosecutors at polls on Election Day. The civil rights groups fear that the presence of criminal prosecutors may intimidate minority voters.
According to the Associated Press, "[t]he move reverses a decades-long practice that put prosecutors on the lookout for voter fraud, ballot access violations and other polling problems."
Acting Assistant Attorney General Grace Chung Becker said in a statement that "[t]his decision was made as a precaution and is not the result of any instance of intimidation or complaint regarding any specific incident."
Even though this effort was focused on voter fraud, the Justice Department is pledging to place hundreds of federal monitors at polls around the nation to ensure that voters are not disenfranchised. The federal monitors will not be prosecutors, either.
Some civil rights groups are worried about intimidation by the federal monitors, as well.
Posted by Lateefah Williams
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