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Federal Judge Rejects Conservative Demands to Keep Justice Department Away From Missouri Polling Sites


— November 5, 2024

“The harms that the State of Missouri anticipates are speculative,” federal Judge Sarah Pitlyk wrote, rejecting the state’s request to bar Department of Justice monitors from visiting Missouri election sites.


A Missouri judge has rejected conservative demands to block federal officials from monitoring polling sites on Election Day.

According to FOX News, the Republican-led lawsuit was filed less than 24 hours ago. In a press release, Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft suggested that the federal Department of Justice has no right to send its attorneys to local polling places.

“No one is above the law,” Ashcroft said in a Monday statement. “The law clearly and specifically limits who may be in polling places and this action by the Department of Justice is not allowed. Once again, the federal government is attempting to illegally interfere in Missouri’s elections.”

The complaint, notes FOX News, was filed shortly after the Justice Department said it would deploy election monitors to 86 voting jurisdictions across 27 states, with officials to be sent to Republican-dominated states, like Florida, and Democrat-led states, like California.

'I voted' stickers
‘I voted’ stickers; image courtesy of Element5 Digital via Unsplash, www.unsplash.com

But Ashcroft claimed that Missouri has already exercised its alleged right to limit federal interference: in 2022, for instance, local officials prohibited the Department of Justice from entering polling places, saying that the state already leads “the nation regarding election integrity as it pertains to accessible, secure voting with timely, credible results.”

“This is a repeat performance,” Ashcroft said on Monday. “Two years ago, we met with the [Department of Justice]. We showed them the law and explained that they have no jurisdiction to interfere in Missouri elections. Now they are doing the same thing; trying to go through the back door by contacting local election officials and making false jurisdictional claims for access rather than contacting my office directly.”

“The [Department of Justice] just doesn’t seem to get it—we don’t need them here; we don’t want them here,” he said. “This time we are taking it a step further and filing a lawsuit against the [Department of Justice] to get them to stop the continued harassment.”

“Rather than contaminate the process—like in Virginia and Alabama—the [Department of Justice] should consider the Show-Me State as the example for other states when it comes to sound non-partisan elections,” Ashcroft said. “It would be highly inappropriate for federal agents to violate the law by intimidating Missouri voters and harassing poll workers.”

However, by Monday evening, the state’s initiative fell flat, with federal Judge Sarah Pitlyk denying the state’s request for a restraining order.

“The harms that the State of Missouri anticipates are speculative,” Pitlyk wrote.

Sources

‘Continued harassment’: Lawsuit to ban feds from polling sites filed by Missouri Republicans

Georgia Election: Republicans file federal lawsuit to keep hand-delivered ballots from being counted

Missouri sues DOJ in effort to block poll monitors

Texas, Missouri judges deny requests to block DOJ from sending poll monitors

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