DOJ Sent About 20 Civil Rights Staff to Monitor Minnesota Primary Polls in Hennepin and Ramsey Counties

The Justice Department stationed about 20 staffers from its Civil Rights Division and the Minnesota U.S. Attorney's Office at polling sites in Hennepin and Ramsey counties on Tuesday, the state's primary election day, according to the DOJ, WDIO and KSTP.

Hennepin and Ramsey counties cover Minneapolis and St. Paul, the state's biggest population centers. The DOJ says its monitors checked ballot security, transparency and compliance with federal voting law, according to KSTP.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the Civil Rights Division, framed it as routine. "Minnesota is DOJ's next stop on its nationwide effort to ensure free and fair elections," Dhillon said, according to WDIO. "The DOJ is committed to nondiscriminatory monitoring throughout the primary and general election seasons."

U.S. Attorney Daniel N. Rosen for the District of Minnesota echoed that, saying election monitoring is "critical to ensuring our elections have the trust of Minnesotans," per WDIO.

Not Minnesota's first rodeo with federal monitors

This isn't new. Minnesota has had DOJ election monitors during federal elections in 2020, 2022 and 2024, according to The Center Square and KSTP. The DOJ also sent agents to monitor Michigan's primary the week before, and Minnesota is one of six states, along with Arizona, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Virginia, where DOJ has observed or plans to observe this cycle, according to The Center Square.

Nationally, the agency says it has already sent more than 50 monitors to seven counties this primary season, according to WDIO.

State officials watching the federal watchers

Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon didn't try to hide his unease. "I certainly understand why reports of agents of the federal government at the polls would alarm people, especially here in Minnesota, given what we have all gone through over the last several months," Simon said, according to The Center Square.

Simon pointed to Operation Metro Surge, an immigration enforcement push in Minnesota's urban areas earlier this year, as the backdrop for that anxiety. He said his office would station state observers to watch the federal observers.

But Simon also conceded there's no track record of problems. "They have in other states, to my knowledge, behaved themselves," he said. "We don't have any reason to believe they'll depart from that record this primary cycle, but we want eyes on the observers."

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison struck a similar tone. "Out of an abundance of caution, my office will be observing the seven teams of federal observers to ensure that they and everyone respect state law and that every Minnesotan who is eligible to vote or to register to vote has free access to their polling place," Ellison said, according to KSTP. He added that because DOJ observers have monitored past elections in Minnesota and other states "without incident, including Michigan just last week, we do not expect any violations of the law."

The DOJ's Civil Rights Division Voting Section enforces the Voting Rights Act, the National Voter Registration Act, the Help America Vote Act, the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act and other civil rights statutes, according to WDIO. That's the legal basis for the monitoring, and it's been the basis for decades, under administrations of both parties.

Just The News reported the deployment is happening as the Trump administration works with states to clean up voter rolls and crack down on alleged voter fraud nationally. The DOJ's own stated justification, both in Dhillon's language and in the agency's press materials, is nondiscriminatory monitoring under existing civil rights law, not a fraud investigation. No fraud allegations tied specifically to Hennepin or Ramsey counties appear in any of the sources here.

Minnesota Democrats' alarm deserves a hearing. State officials on the ground, closer to voters than any federal press release, are the ones who'd hear directly if monitors intimidated anyone or interfered with poll operations. Their decision to deploy their own observers is a reasonable check, not an overreaction, especially given the tension around Operation Metro Surge earlier this year. By their own admission, that check has so far found nothing.

The DOJ says it will keep fielding questions and complaints from the public through the November 3, 2026, general election, and anyone with concerns can email the Voting Section at VEM@usdoj.gov, according to WDIO. Voters with concerns about monitors at Minnesota polls can also call the Secretary of State's hotline at 1-877-600-VOTE, per KSTP.

The immediate outcome of Tuesday's primary already includes one upset covered separately by Just The News: Lisa Demuth defeated Mike Lindell in the Minnesota GOP gubernatorial primary. Whether DOJ's monitoring produced any formal complaints from Hennepin or Ramsey counties has not yet been reported by any of these outlets.