JUSTICE DEPARTMENT TO MONITOR ELECTION IN INDIANA

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Justice Department today announced that it will send federal observers and Civil Rights Division personnel to monitor the October 26 special primary election in East Chicago (Lake County), Indiana.

Under the Voting Rights Act, the Justice Department is authorized to ask the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to send federal observers to areas that are specially covered in the Act itself or by a federal court order. Federal observers will be assigned to monitor the polling place activities in East Chicago pursuant to a federal court order entered on September 13, 2004.

The observers will watch and record activities during voting hours at polling locations in the city. Civil Rights Division attorneys will coordinate the federal activities and maintain contact with local election officials.

Lake County has an obligation to provide voting information and assistance in Spanish in East Chicago elections pursuant to a court order under Section 4(e) of the Voting Rights Act, entered in a suit brought in 2003 by local Hispanic plaintiffs. The observers will gather information concerning compliance with the court’s order and other issues affecting minority language voters.

Each year, the Department of Justice deploys hundreds of observers and attorneys to monitor elections across the country. In 2000, the Department coordinated and sent 743 federal observers and Department personnel to 31 counties in 13 states to monitor 46 elections. Already in 2004, the Department has deployed 731 federal observers and Department personnel to monitor 75 elections in 67 counties in 20 states. The Department plans to deploy hundreds more to monitor the November 2 general election, the largest monitoring effort in the Department’s history.

To file complaints about discriminatory voting practices, including acts of harassment or intimidation, voters may call the Voting Section of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division at 1-800-253-3931.

More information about the Voting Rights Act and other federal voting laws is available on the Department of Justice website at www.usdoj.gov/crt/voting/index.htm.

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