Some Republican-led states will not allow federal poll monitors at voting locations on Election Day, officials told ABC News on Thursday.
The Department of Justice has a long-held tradition of deploying election monitors across the country to "help assess compliance with federal voting laws," according to the department. But recently, in some states, Republicans have blocked federal authorities from monitoring both federal and non-federal elections.
In Texas, a spokesperson for the state's Republican secretary of state told ABC News in a statement that federal monitors are not authorized to be inside polling locations.
Instead, state inspectors will be deployed to "various locations" throughout Texas, the spokesperson said.
Texas Democrats have raised concerns about the decision, penning a letter to the Department of Justice in September asking federal officials to intervene and exercise its authority to monitor the state's five most populous counties.
