司法部在周三晚些时候提交的一份法庭文件中确认，联邦调查局（FBI）和美国移民与海关执法局（ICE）的特工将不会在选举日被部署到投票站担任选举监督员，但其他联邦执法机构的员工将担任监督员。
The Justice Department confirmed in a court filing late Wednesday that FBI and ICE agents will not be deployed as election monitors at polling places on Election Day, but that employees from other federal law enforcement agencies will serve as monitors.
司法部在提交法庭的声明中说：“联邦调查局或美国移民与海关执法局的员工，更不用说特工，都不会担任监督员。”声明补充说，一名海关与边境保护局（CBP）员工将代表民权司担任监督员，“根据调派令行事，而非作为国土安全部的代表”。
“There will be no Federal Bureau of Investigation or U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees, much less agents, serving as monitors,” the Justice Department said in a declaration filed with the court. It added that one Customs and Border Protection employee will serve as a monitor on behalf of the Civil Rights Division “pursuant to detail and not as a representative” of the Department of Homeland Security.
这份法庭文件是针对由全国有色人种协进会（NAACP）等提起的、旨在阻止司法部在中期选举期间向投票站部署联邦特工的诉讼作出的回应。
The court filing came in response to a lawsuit against the Trump administration filed, in part by the NAACP, to block the Justice Department from deploying federal agents to polling places during the midterm elections.
司法部还表示，烟酒枪炮及爆炸物管理局（ATF）、缉毒局（DEA）和联邦监狱局的员工“将担任监督员”。该声明由司法部投票科代理科长埃里克·内夫（Eric Neff）提交，他此前曾宣扬关于2020年大选的虚假言论。
The Justice Department also said that employees from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Federal Bureau of Prisons “will serve as monitors.”The declaration was filed by Eric Neff, acting chief of the DOJ’s Voting Section, who has previously promoted false claims about the 2020 election.
前司法部律师贾斯汀·莱维特（Justin Levitt）在奥巴马政府时期曾协助监督选举监督员项目，他对MS NOW表示：“这类联邦官员担任监督员并不正常。但他们仍然只是在那里观察，如果他们扰乱、干扰或恐吓选民，仍然可以（也将）被赶出投票站。”司法部决定从这些机构抽调员工担任监督员，是在该部门于8月宣布将为2026年中期选举部署1000名联邦监督员之后作出的。该宣布引发了国会民主党议员和投票权倡导者对该行动范围及其潜在选民恐吓效应的担忧。
“It’s not normal for those types of federal officials to serve as monitors,” Justin Levitt, a former DOJ attorney who helped oversee the election monitor program during the Obama administration, told MS NOW. “But they’re still just there only to observe, and can (and will) still be tossed out of the polls if they disrupt or disturb or intimidate.”The Justice Department’s decision to pull employees from those agencies to act as monitors comes after the department announced in August it would deploy 1,000 federal monitors for the 2026 midterms. The announcement drew concern from Democratic lawmakers in Congress, and voting rights advocates over the scope of the operation and its potential for voter intimidation.
州选举官员已告知 MS NOW，联邦选举监督员并非他们在应对特朗普政府联邦干预方面的首要担忧。如果监督员造成干扰，可被要求离开投票站，而各州决定联邦投票监督员观察投票的准入程度。
State election officials have told MS NOW that the federal election monitors are not their top concern when it comes to federal interference from the Trump administration. Monitors can be removed from polling sites if they are disruptive, and states determine the level of access federal poll monitors have to observe voting.
莱维特表示，司法部很可能难以凑齐民权司负责人哈米特·迪隆承诺的 1000 名选举监督员，正在调用烟酒枪炮及爆炸物管理局（ATF）和缉毒局（DEA）员工，“试图凑够人头”。“有人向老板承诺 1000 人，结果却凑不齐 1000 人，”他说。
Levitt said the Justice Department is likely struggling to get to the 1,000 election monitors promised by Harmeet Dhillon, head of the Civil Rights Division, and is tapping ATF and DEA employees “as an attempt to get warm bodies.”“Someone promised the boss 1,000 people, and then couldn’t come up with 1,000 people,” he said.
司法部发言人基尔斯滕·佩尔斯此前曾告诉 MS NOW，没有其他联邦官员或联邦执法人员会陪同司法部监督员部署到投票站。司法部告诉 MS NOW，选举监督员将是司法部律师和刑事检察官。
DOJ spokesperson Kiersten Pels previously told MS NOW that no other federal officials or federal law enforcement agents would accompany the DOJ monitors in their deployment at polling places. The election monitors will be DOJ attorneys and criminal prosecutors, the Justice Department told MS NOW.
派遣检察官担任监督员属于罕见做法，通常只有民事律师担任这一角色。
Dispatching prosecutors as monitors is unusual, as typically only civil attorneys serve in that role.