Federal poll watchers were in 22 states during yesterday's elections, safeguarding against fraud or discrimination in election districts marked by tight races, large numbers of minority voters and faulty ballot machines.
Justice Department monitors and observers were assigned to Cuyahoga County, Ohio, which has been dogged by problems with computerized touch-screen voting machines. They were also in Bergen County, New Jersey, a must-win prize for both candidates in the state's Senate race.
They were also watching more than a dozen counties nationwide where polls are on American Indian reservations and in big cities dominated by black voters.
In all, the Justice Department sent an estimated 850 poll watchers to 69 cities and counties -- what officials on Monday called an unprecedented number and twice as many as during the 2002 congressional elections, the most recent non-presidential vote for Congress.
The government has dispatched poll watchers to ensure fair elections since the 1965 Voting Rights Act was enacted.
Assistant Attorney General Wan Kim, who heads the Justice Department's civil rights programs, told reporters last week that the election districts were selected in part because of close races there.
They include Fort Bend and Galveston counties in Texas, where Republican candidate Shelley Sekula-Gibbs is seeking to keep a Republican hold on the seat vacated by Republican Congressman Tom DeLay, who resigned in a corruption scandal.
Texas Democrats have accused Sekula-Gibbs of twice entering early voting locations -- which is prohibited by law -- to introduce herself to voters and workers.
That race also has been marked by allegations of poll workers offering unrequested assistance if voters need help with writing in a candidate or need help writing in Sekula-Gibbs, whose supporters would have to write in her name because DeLay's still appears in the Republican slot on the ballot.
Poll watchers were in several major cities -- including Boston, Chicago, Denver, New Orleans, San Francisco and parts of New York City -- where black and other minority voters traditionally have claimed they were denied access to the ballot box.
The federal watchdogs were in some small cities, too, like Springfield, Massachusetts, where the Justice Department forced officials to hire bilingual poll workers to help Spanish-speaking residents at the polls.
Eight counties in South Dakota were also visited by the monitors.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in