FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CRT

MONDAY, JUNE 4, 2007 (202) 514-2007

WWW.USDOJ.GOV TDD (202) 514-1888

Justice Department to Monitor

Elections
in New Jersey and South Carolina
WASHINGTON - The Justice Department today announced that on June 5, 2007, it
will monitor local elections in Bergen County, Edison, and Penns Grove, N.J., and
in Hollywood, S.C., to ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act.

Justice Department personnel will watch and record activities during voting hours at
polling places in these locations, and Civil Rights Division attorneys will coordinate
the federal activities and maintain contact with local election officials.

Bergen County and Edison, N.J., are obligated to provide all election information,
ballots, and voting assistance information in Spanish as well as in English pursuant
to Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act. The monitors will gather information
concerning compliance.

In addition, Department personnel will monitor in all these locations to ensure that
the right of voters to participate in the election is not infringed on account of their
race or their inability to understand English well enough to participate effectively in
the electoral process.

Each year, the Justice Department deploys hundreds of federal observers from the
Office of Personnel Management, as well as departmental staff, to monitor elections
across the country. During calendar year 2004, a record 1,463 federal observers and
533 Department personnel were sent to monitor 163 elections in 106 jurisdictions in
29 states. This compares to the 640 federal observers and 110 Department personnel
deployed during the entire 2000 presidential calendar year. In 2006, another record
was set for the mid-term elections with more than 800 federal observers and
Department personnel sent to monitor polling places in 69 jurisdictions in 22 states
on Election Day. The Department’s election monitoring program also has been very
active in non-federal election years. In calendar year 2005, for example, 640 federal
observers and 191 Department personnel were sent to monitor 47 elections in 36
jurisdictions in 14 states.

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 Web site at
http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/voting/index.htm.

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