Salt Lake County voters heading to the polls Nov. 3 can expect a quiet federal presence: 12 U.S. Department of Justice monitors will visit six or seven polling locations in the county, Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson said after meeting with DOJ officials Oct. 26.

"They couldn't tell us a lot of details but they did say there will be 12 monitors in total that will be visiting six or seven polling locations," Henderson told FOX 13 News. "They'll be going in pairs to polling locations in Salt Lake County."

The DOJ has not disclosed which specific polling places will be monitored. Sandy sits within Salt Lake County, but whether any Sandy locations are on the list remains unknown.

Part of a nationwide push

The Salt Lake County deployment is part of a larger DOJ program sending about 1,000 monitors to all 50 states, according to Utah News Dispatch. DOJ spokesperson Kiersten Pels said the department will not release the full list of monitored locations until Election Day.

The program expands a decades-old practice. During President Joe Biden's administration, the DOJ sent monitors to 64 jurisdictions across 24 states for the 2022 midterm elections. The 2024 election included more than 95,000 polling places nationwide, according to U.S. Election Assistance Commission data cited by Utah News Dispatch.

What monitors will and won't do

Henderson, a Republican who serves as Utah's chief elections officer, said the DOJ provided assurances about how monitors will behave.

"They won't be approaching voters. They won't be wearing any sort of insignia," Henderson said, according to Utah News Dispatch's Oct. 22 reporting. She added that monitors will identify themselves to poll workers but not to voters.

According to a DOJ Civil Rights Division letter to Henderson's office, monitors are required to only observe and take notes. They must dress in business casual clothing, cannot use DOJ identifiers, cannot talk to voters inside polling places and cannot carry firearms.

Henderson said the monitors will look for compliance with federal voting rights laws, including disability access under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and language access. She said the DOJ did not mention election integrity specifically, ABC4 reported.

Salt Lake County Clerk Lannie Chapman joined Henderson on the Oct. 26 virtual meeting with DOJ officials, according to FOX 13 News.

Background tensions

The monitors arrive amid friction between Henderson and the Trump administration. Henderson has refused to hand over unredacted voter data to the DOJ, and a federal judge threw out a DOJ lawsuit seeking that information, FOX 13 News reported. The DOJ said it would appeal.

Henderson said she does not know the DOJ's motivation for sending monitors to Utah. "I can say, though, that there are other states that aren't being sued by the Department of Justice who are also getting these election monitors," she told ABC4.

The League of Women Voters of Utah said it plans to send its own observers to polling places. Katharine Biele, the League's president, told FOX 13 News the group intends to monitor the DOJ's monitors.

What Sandy voters should know

Henderson encouraged voters concerned about the federal presence to submit their ballots at a drop box before Election Day. She also urged voters to track their ballots at trackmyballot.utah.gov.

"I want to make sure voters are calm and know that things are going to be OK," Henderson said, according to KUER.

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3. Salt Lake County opened Saturday early voting Oct. 31.