Hennepin County Keeps DOJ Election Monitors 100 Feet From Polls

Hennepin County, Minnesota’s most populous county, has once again refused to let U.S. Department of Justice election monitors inside its polling places, this time for Tuesday’s general election, according to a news release the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office issued Monday.

The release said the Justice Department asked the county to approve DOJ staff accessing and monitoring polling places on Nov. 3, in a request similar to the one it made before the Aug. 11 primary. “After consultation with our office, the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office, and others, Hennepin County denied the request,” the county attorney’s office said.

The 2026 general election is tomorrow!

Similarly to this past primary election in August, DOJ election monitors are expected to visit polling places across Hennepin County.

Find your polling place: https://t.co/uoypFzAoNE

Your right to vote is yours. Use it. https://t.co/QBjxNhXdXy

— Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty (@HennepinAtty) November 2, 2026

Under the county’s decision, federal monitors will have to stay outside a 100-foot boundary around polling locations, in compliance with Minnesota law, according to the release. The county said the monitors are expected to be DOJ staff in plainclothes who may try to interview voters as they leave, and it stressed that taking part in those interviews is voluntary.

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty paired the announcement with a warning. “Our office is fully prepared to protect and defend your right to vote,” Moriarty said, according to the Sun Current. “Any reports of threats, harassment, or intimidation directed at voters or election workers will be reviewed and, if appropriate, prosecuted.” The county also said the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office plans to observe the DOJ monitoring teams, effectively assigning state officials to watch the federal observers.

The Sun Current, a Twin Cities community paper, reported Monday that DOJ monitors may still be present in the metro area on Election Day, and that before the August primary the department had said it intended to focus on Minneapolis, Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center.

A national monitoring push

The Hennepin decision comes as the Justice Department expands its Election Day presence. The department told KSTP-TV in Minneapolis that it will send 1,000 election monitors to all 50 states for Tuesday’s midterms to observe and report potential violations of federal law. KSTP reported that both Hennepin and Ramsey counties said DOJ monitors would be held to the same polling-place access and distance rules as other members of the public.

Federal election monitoring is not new. In an Oct. 22 interview with MPR News, Minnesota’s secretary of state said the practice “has been done through multiple presidential administrations, including the Biden administration,” and that the stated purpose is to enforce provisions of the Voting Rights Act. The secretary of state told MPR News that DOJ teams followed the rules during the August primary, when a handful of two-person teams visited roughly 40 polling places.

The secretary of state also told MPR News that state law gives Hennepin and Ramsey counties the right to keep the monitors out of the polling place itself, and that monitors are entitled to stand outside the 100-foot perimeter and may speak with voters on their way out.

What voters should know

According to the county attorney’s office, election monitors and other members of the public may not interfere with a voter’s ability to enter a polling place, direct election judges to take any action, or interfere with the operation of a polling place.

For Hennepin County voters, the practical effect of the county’s decision is that any federal observers they see will be standing on the sidewalk, not inside the room where ballots are cast.

Sources

• Hennepin County Attorney’s Office on X
• Sun Current
• KSTP-TV
• MPR News

Reporting by Daily Beltway.