The Justice Department announced that on Saturday, May 10, 2008, it will monitor local elections in the cities of Farmers Branch and Irving in Dallas County, Texas, to ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act.

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 polling place activities in Dallas County based on the special coverage provisions.

Dallas County is obligated to provide all election information, ballots and voting assistance in Spanish as well as in English according to the Voting Rights Act. The observers will watch and record activities during voting hours at polling locations in these jurisdictions. Civil Rights Division attorneys will coordinate the federal activities and maintain
contact with local election officials.

Each year, the Justice Department deploys hundreds of federal observers from OPM, as well as departmental staff, to monitor elections across the country. In calendar year 2006, for example, 966 federal observers and 575 Department personnel were sent to monitor 119 elections in 81 jurisdictions in 24 states.