Justice Department targets Chatham, other Democratic areas for election monitors

On its face, there was nothing unusual about the announcement out of Washington.

The U.S. Justice Department confirmed it will deploy monitors in Georgia and elsewhere in the U.S. to ensure that voting in next week’s midterm elections is free and fair and complies with federal law. Previous administrations, Republican and Democrat alike, have done so in the past.

What is eye-catching, however, is the list of counties to be scrutinized in Georgia. All six — Chatham, Bibb, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton, and Gwinnett — are Democratic Party strongholds. And all six have voted for Donald Trump’s Democratic opponent in the past three presidential elections, by an average of 28.9% of the vote (17.2% in Chatham).

What gives further pause over the actual aim of the monitoring effort is the leadership of the Justice Department office overseeing it. The agency’s Civil Rights Division is led by Harmeet Dhillon, whose California-based law firm represented both Trump and his 2024 presidential campaign before he appointed her to her current post.

In 2020, while serving as a legal adviser to Trump’s presidential campaign, Dhillon tweeted “STOP THE STEAL!” in the aftermath of the voting and called for donations to Trump’s election defense fund. As assistant U.S. attorney general, she has spearheaded lawsuits against 29 states and the District of Columbia, demanding they turn over their voter rolls to the federal government.

The letter to Chatham elections officials notifying them that federal monitors will soon be arriving at their doorsteps is signed by Jonathon Hauenschild, a trial attorney for the Civil Rights Division.

According to his LinkedIn page, before going to work for the Justice Department in February Hauenschild was senior counsel for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which describes itself as “America’s foremost guardian of national sovereignty, the rule of law, and the interests of the American people on the existential issue of immigration.”

For local Democratic Party leaders, there is nothing benign or traditional about the Justice Department’s monitoring initiative or the people leading it. It is, they say, an attempt to sow confusion, plant doubt, and discourage voters from showing up at the polls at casting their ballots.

“This is not the Department of Justice of yesteryear,” state Rep. Anne Allen Westbrook (District 163) said a Democratic Party rally in Savannah on Sunday. “This is a Trump vengeance machine.”

Chatham “is one of the counties in Georgia that’s on a DOJ hit list,” Savannah Mayor Van Johnson declared.

‘Maintaining public trust’

The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, Meg Heap, is on board with the monitoring effort.

“We are committed to maintaining public trust and instilling the public’s confidence in our democratic institutions,” Heap, a former Chatham County district attorney, said in a statement released by her office last week.

“We will work closely with our federal, state, and local partners to safeguard the state’s polling places and mail-in ballots to ensure the integrity of the vote.”

The statement does not identify Chatham or any Georgia county as subjects of the monitoring.

‘Not specifically authorized by federal statute’

The letter sent by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division to Chatham elections officials notifying them about the election monitoring initiative requests a meeting to discuss logistics but gives few details.

But historically, the activities of Justice Department election monitors are circumscribed, according to a briefing memorandum prepared for local elections officials, a copy of which was obtained by The Current.

Since monitors are not specifically authorized by federal statute, according to the memo, they are generally permitted only to enter polling places or election facilities with the consent of state and election officials. In other words, “poll workers are not required to allow federal monitors inside polling places or election facilities unless state or local authorities have directed them otherwise.”

Also, federal and state law “strictly prohibit election monitors from intimidating, threatening, or coercing — or attempting to intimidate, threaten, or coerce — anyone who is voting, attempting to vote, or helping another person vote or attempt to vote.”

This includes, the memo states, “aggressively questioning voters about their citizenship, criminal record, or other qualifications to vote, as well as requesting ‘documentation’ from voters.”