“The Justice Department announced today that it will monitor compliance with federal voting rights laws in the State of Alaska, for the Oct 1 Regional Education Attendance Area elections. The department will monitor in the Bethel Dillingham and Kusilvak Census Areas, as well as the Northwest Arctic and North Slope Boroughs. The Justice Department will assign federal observers to monitor the election in the Dillingham and Kusilvak Census Areas to observe compliance with the Voting Rights Act. A federal court previously issued an order to resolve claims under Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act regarding the rights of Yup’ik-speaking voters,” says a DOJ press release.
“The order authorizes federal observers to monitor election day activities in these census areas. The department is also sending its staff to monitor compliance in Bethel Census Area, Northwest Arctic Borough and North Slope Borough, Alaska. The department regularly deploys its staff to monitor for compliance with federal civil rights laws in elections in communities across the country. In addition, the department also deploys federal observers from the Office of Personnel Management, when authorized by federal court order,” the statement continued and it sure kind of sounds like they’re stretching the monitoring muscles before E-Day by deploying to rural Alaska for some local races.