00:00Precisely ahead of Tuesday's midterm elections in the United States, federal authorities are preparing an unprecedented election monitoring operation across
00:0850 states amid debates over voting rights and enforcement. Her correspondent, Dan Albright, has more details from Boston.
00:17Yeah, thanks. We're watching this one closely. The Trump Justice Department is preparing the largest federal election monitoring operation in
00:26U.S. history, and immigration enforcement during the election also fueling concerns.
00:31Reuters reports about 1,000 federal monitors are being deployed across all 50 states, roughly triple the number used during
00:39the last midterms.
00:40Now, federal election monitoring is not new. Justice Department lawyers have observed elections for violations of voting rights laws for
00:50decades.
00:51What's different is the scale and a DOJ now increasingly focused on alleged fraud and non-citizen voting.
00:58Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear has questioned why the Justice Department targeted Louisville and Lexington, the state's two largest Democratic strongholds,
01:08and home to its largest black populations.
01:10He called the choice of locations suspicious.
01:14His message to voters, quote,
01:21The administration says it is not deploying ICE to patrol polling places, but Trump and senior officials previously refused to
01:30completely rule out agents appearing near them.
01:33And in the closely divided California Congressional District of Bakersfield Valley, a major farming center for the country, Reuters found
01:41a White House-directed ICE surge has already left some Latino U.S. citizens afraid to vote.
01:49So with control of Congress at stake, state officials and voting groups are now effectively monitoring the monitors.
01:57From Boston, Dan Albright, Telesor. Back to you.
