Justice Department to Monitor Three Local Elections in Alabama and Florida

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department today announced that on Aug. 26, 2008, it will monitor elections in the towns of Bayou La Batre and Marion, Ala., as well as in Seminole County, Fla., to ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA).

The VRA authorizes the Justice Department to ask the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to send federal observers to areas that are specially covered in the statute or by a federal court order. Federal observers will be assigned to monitor polling place activities in Marion, Ala., based on the special coverage provisions. More...