That's a whole lotta folks.
Justice Department to Monitor Polls in 28 States on Election Day
The Justice Department announced today that its Civil Rights Division plans to deploy more than 500 personnel to 67 jurisdictions in 28 states for the Nov. 8, 2016, general election.
Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch said, “We enforce federal statutes related to voting through a range of activities – including filing our own litigation when the facts warrant, submitting statements of interest in private lawsuits to help explain our understanding of these laws, and providing guidance to election officials and the general public about what these laws mean and what they require. On Election Day itself, lawyers in the Civil Rights Division’s Voting Section will staff a hotline starting in the early hours of the morning, and just as we have sent election monitors in prior elections, we will continue to have a robust election monitors program in place on election day. As always, 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."
The emphasis is not on preventing ineligible voters from voting. But on "eligible voters".
And this "impartial" program includes "Hamtramck, Michigan". If you're wondering where you remember it from, here's a reminder
It's a few minutes after 6 a.m. in Hamtramck and loudspeakers attached to a building once part of the American Axle auto plant begin bellowing the Islamic call to prayer.
Gone is the factory and its blue-collar workforce. An Islamic Center takes its place.
Women in hijabs now walk the streets of a town known to most outsiders for its Polish paczkis and pierogies.
The Muslim call to prayer is now more prevalent that clanging Christian church bells.
A large number of Bangladeshi immigrants moved in waves to Hamtramck over the last decade, many from New York. Hamtramck Councilman Anam Miah, a Muslim Bangladeshi who came to Hamtramck with his parents as a child, says its the large immigrant population, low cost of living and walkability that makes Hamtramck attractive.
The city of about 20,000 in its November election ousted one of the "old guard" European councilmen in favor of a Bangladeshi Muslim, making Hamtramck the first city in the nation to elect a majority-Muslim City Council.
It's certainly interesting that the DOJ is monitoring elections on the ground here.