Twelve federal election monitors will fan out across Salt Lake County polling places on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3, though voters at the polls may never know they're there.

The monitors, deployed by the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, will travel in pairs to six or seven polling locations in the county, Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson told FOX 13 News after meeting with DOJ officials in late October. Sandy falls within Salt Lake County, so any of the county's in-person voting sites could be on the list.

The specific polling locations have not been made public.

What monitors can and cannot do

A DOJ letter sent to Henderson on Oct. 21 by Jake Bachand, a trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division, spells out the ground rules. Monitors may only observe and take notes. They will not wear uniforms or pins identifying them as DOJ personnel. They will dress in business casual clothing and introduce themselves to the poll manager with government identification.

The letter states monitors will not talk to voters inside polling places. They are forbidden from carrying firearms, even in Utah's open-carry state. If a monitor spots an issue, the letter says, the monitor reports it up the chain to a team lead or regional coordinator, who may then contact local election officials.

Henderson, Utah's chief elections officer, said the monitors must follow the same state laws that govern all poll watchers. She said her office gave county clerks specific instructions on how to handle the federal presence.

"We have laws that pertain to any kind of election monitor, and those laws apply to these federal monitors as well," Henderson said in October, according to Utah News Dispatch.

What they're looking for

The DOJ letter says monitors are checking compliance with federal voting rights statutes, including the Voting Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act.

Henderson said the DOJ told her the monitors are focused on language access, ADA compliance and making sure voters who need a provisional ballot are not turned away, according to FOX 13 News.

Why Utah?

Henderson said she does not know the DOJ's specific motivation. She noted other states not involved in election litigation are also receiving monitors. The deployment comes as the DOJ has separately pursued access to unredacted Utah voter rolls, a legal fight Henderson has resisted. A federal judge threw out that DOJ lawsuit before Election Day, according to FOX 13 News.

Henderson said the scope of this year's deployment may be unusual, but the practice itself is not new. The DOJ previously sent monitors to San Juan County in 2024, according to Utah News Dispatch.

What voters should do

Henderson said she does not expect problems and believes most voters will not notice the monitors.

In coverage published in October, Katharine Biele, president of the League of Women Voters of Utah, told FOX 13 News the League planned to have its own observers at the polls alongside the ACLU. "We will be there to make sure voters are not intimidated," Biele said.

Voters who feel uncomfortable at an in-person polling location can fill out their ballots at home and use a drop box, Henderson said. She also encouraged voters to track their ballots at trackmyballot.utah.gov. Anyone who witnesses interference at a polling place should remain calm and contact the Salt Lake County Clerk's office.