The federal government will not deploy FBI or Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel to serve as election monitors during the 2026 general election, according to a recent Justice Department filing in federal court.
In a declaration submitted Wednesday to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the Justice Department stated that sworn law enforcement officers possessing arrest powers will not act as monitors in a law enforcement capacity. The filing was entered into the record by Eric Neff, acting chief of the Voting Section within the department’s Civil Rights Division, as part of an ongoing Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by the NAACP.
Under the outlined directives, personnel assigned to monitor polling locations are instructed strictly to observe sites, take notes, and engage in conversations with willing voters outside polling stations after they have finished casting their ballots. The filing specifies that participating monitors will adhere to protocols established in previous election cycles, undergo formal training regarding federal and local laws, and remain strictly prohibited from carrying firearms or displaying identifying federal uniforms and insignia.
The roster of participating personnel includes employees drawn from the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Drug Enforcement Administration, alongside a single Customs and Border Protection employee detailed specifically to the Justice Department. While performing monitoring assignments, these individuals are restricted exclusively to routine Civil Rights Division oversight duties.
The clarification arrives against a backdrop of intensified scrutiny concerning federal law enforcement visibility near voting infrastructure. The concern follows a pair of reported incidents involving federal agents stationed near early voting locations in Florida, one of which triggered a formal complaint directed to the FBI. Under established federal statutes, the deployment of armed federal personnel to polling places is generally prohibited except in narrow circumstances involving armed enemies of the United States.
While the administration has maintained that it has no intention of deploying federal agents to patrol voting sites, President Donald Trump, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, and FBI Director Kash Patel have previously declined to completely rule out the presence of federal personnel.
