Federal election monitors can’t come inside Washington County polling sites, commissioners say

Washington County election commissioners voted Monday to bar Department of Justice representatives from coming inside polling places on Election Day, and Pulaski County election officials will take up the same issue at a meeting Thursday at 7 p.m.

These votes come after an announcement last week that 1,000 agents from the DOJ will fan out across the country to monitor the polls. In Arkansas, plans call for federal monitors to be on location in only two of the state’s 75 counties: Pulaski and Washington.

The Washington County vote won’t mean federal election monitors can’t come to town; they’ll simply not be granted special access to come inside polling places, and will have to remain outside and 100 feet away from the entrance, like everyone else.

It’s not unusual for the federal government to send out some election monitors to make sure laws are being followed. But the 1,000 number is nearly triple the monitors the Biden administration sent to watch the polls in 2022.

Why the DOJ is targeting some counties and not others is not immediately clear, but you can form your own opinion by considering some stats and recent election results.

While Pulaski County, the state’s most populous, is reliably blue and voted against Donald Trump in 2024, Washington County still glows red, although just barely. Trump secured only 52% of the vote there in 2024. Washington County is the third most populous in the state; the DOJ is not planning to send monitors to Benton County, Arkansas’ second most populous county. Scarlet-red Benton County delivered a safe margin for Republicans in 2024, awarding Trump more than 60% of the vote.

All county election commissions in Arkansas are made up of three members whose partisanship is determined by the predominant party in the state. As a Republican stronghold in 2026, Arkansas counties each have two Republicans and one Democrat on their commissions overseeing elections.

A live feed of the Washington County Election Commission got wobbly and cut off Monday, but they put out a social media post explaining their vote.