Justice Department sending over 500 Civil Rights officials to monitor Tuesday's election in 28 states

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Personnel from the US Justice Department's civil rights division will be deployed to polling sites in 28 states to monitor Tuesday's election - five more than it monitored in the 2012 election - the department said on Monday.

"Our personnel will perform these duties impartially, with one goal in mind: to see to it that every eligible voter can participate in our elections to the full extent that federal law provides," Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch said in the release. "The department is deeply committed to the fair and unbiased application of our voting rights laws and we will work tirelessly to ensure that every eligible person that wants to do so is able to cast a ballot."

Most of those states will receive Justice Department staff who have no statutory authority to access polling sites as a result of a 2013 Supreme Court decision that struck down parts of the Voting Rights Act, curtailing the department's ability to deploy election observers with unfettered access to the polls.

Tuesday's hotly contested election, including the presidential race pitting Republican Donald Trump against Democrat Hillary Clinton, will be the first in decades in which the Justice Department can only send full-access observers to states where a federal court ruling has authorized it.

On the campaign trail, Trump has warned the election may be rigged and has called on supporters to keep an eye on voting activity for possible signs of fraud in large cities. Numerous studies have found that US voter fraud is exceedingly rare.

Courts have granted the Justice Department permission to deploy full-access observers in five states: Alaska, California, Louisiana, New York, and Alabama. But the court order for Alabama only pertains to municipal elections and it is not on the list of states where the Justice Department is deploying poll watchers this year.

The Justice Department staff who are deployed to the other 24 states on Tuesday will be election "monitors," who must rely on local and state authorities to grant them access to polling locations.

"In most cases, voters on the ground will see very little practical difference between monitors and observers," said Vanita Gupta, the head of the department's civil rights division, in a statement.

Though the department will be overseeing more jurisdictions this year, it will be doing so with fewer people.

This Tuesday, the DOJ said over 500 personnel will monitor elections in 67 jurisdictions in 28 states. In the 2012 presidential election, the department deployed more than 780 federal observers to 51 jurisdictions in 23 states.

Some of the Voting Rights Act provisions personnel will be monitoring include: not discriminating against voters based on their race, gender, or disability, providing minority languages if necessary, and complying with proper voter registration requirements.

If voters see any violations on Tuesday, they can contact the DOJ Civil Rights Department by phone (1-800-253-3931) and email (voting.section@usdoj.gov), or submit a complaint on the website. If voters see any evidence of election fraud, they can contact their local US attorney, which can be found here.

The 28 states the DOJ is monitoring tomorrow are: Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin. Some only have one jurisdiction being watched, while others will have several.

You can see a full list of the 67 jurisdictions in the DOJ release here »