By Marilyn Odendahl
The Indiana Citizen
October 26, 2026
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita is supporting the Trump administration’s plans to send federal election monitors to polling sites in only Lake and Marion counties on Election Day.
“As Indiana’s Attorney General and former Secretary of State who led the effort that made Indiana the first state in the nation to enact a photo voter ID law, I want every election to be secure and run as effectively as possible so Hoosiers can feel confident that their votes count and the results are accurate, fair, and legitimate,” Rokita said in a statement released Monday. “To help make that happen, I welcome the Department of Justice sending election monitors into Indiana on November 3.”
Election officials in Marion and Lake counties learned about the deployment of federal monitors when they each received a notification letter last week from the U.S. Department of Justice. The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, which sent the letter, said the election monitors would be watching to ensure compliance with the federal voting rights statutes, including the Voting Rights Act, the National Voter Registration Act, and the Help America Vote Act.
Also, the Department of Justice sought to reassure local officials. “As the Civil Rights Division has done in the past, our monitors only observe,” the agency’s letter said. “They do not intrude or interfere in any way in the voting process.”
The DOJ’s plans to come to Indiana are part of a wider initiative to dispatch 1,000 election monitors to polling sites in all 50 states, according to a report by PBS NewsHour. Although the federal government has often sent monitors to observe elections, the estimated number of monitors expected this year is nearly three times the number mobilized for the 2022 midterms.
About a month ago, Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the Civil Right Division at the U.S. Department of Justice, said the monitors would be lawyers and other staff in the Justice Department who will go into the field on Nov. 3 as part of “the biggest DOJ election observer effort in history.”
Dhillon said the monitors would be watching and would not interfere with running the election. She said they would be observing, taking notes, ensuring that “nothing funky is happening” and that voters are able to cast their ballots. Any problems, she said, would be addressed afterwards.
A factsheet created by the Campaign Legal Center found that most monitors sent to polling places in eight states during the 2026 primaries did not disrupt voters or election officials and followed protocols and federal and state laws.
However, Wyoming attorney general’s office launched an investigation into two election monitors from the Justice Department following the state’s primary in August. State officials told the Associated Press that the DOJ monitors said they intended to interview voters inside polling sites, asked about poll worker training and wanted to see the voting machines’ vote tabulators.
In his statement of support, Rokita said the federal monitors are needed for the 2026 general election. He pointed to the criminal charges recently filed against a Vigo County resident with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status for allegedly voting illegally in multiple elections as a noncitizen.
“Federal monitors who observe and report simply add another layer of accountability to the work our great state already does to protect the integrity of every legal vote,” Rokita said in his statement.
The Indiana Senate Democratic Caucus is calling on the Justice Department to explain why Marion and Lake counties are being singled out for federal election monitoring.
“The timing and selection raise serious questions,” the Senate Democrats said in a statement. “Why were these two counties chosen out of Indiana’s 92, and what message does that send to the Hoosiers preparing to cast their ballots?”
The Senate minority caucus noted these two counties are part of Democratic strongholds in Indiana that have consistently elected Democrats to Congress. Although Lake and Marion counties were targeted last year during the midcycle redistricting fight, a bipartisan majority in the Indiana Senate blocked the attempt by President Donald Trump to turn those counties red in his effort to protect the Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Also, the Senate Democrats described Lake and Marion counties as home to large Black and Latino populations.
“We support free, fair and secure elections, the enforcement of election laws and efforts to prevent voter fraud,” the Senate Democratic Caucus said in a statement. “Election integrity also means protecting every single eligible voter’s right to participate without intimidation or interference. Federal election observers were historically deployed to protect the voting rights of communities that faced discrimination and disenfranchisement. Their purpose is to safeguard those rights, not to intimidate the very voters they were meant to protect.”
An analysis of the 2020 Census data by the Indiana Business Research Center at Indiana University Kelley School of Business found Marion and Lake counties remained the most diverse in the state. According to the research, Black residents are the second-largest race of ethnic group in both locales – claiming 27.2% of the total in Marion County and 24.3% in Lake County. Meanwhile, Hispanic residents accounted for one-fifth of the Lake County total and 13.2% of Marion County’s residents.
“As the state’s most-populous counties, these two together account for nearly 22% of Indiana’s total population, yet roughly 61% of all Black Hoosiers reside in either Marion or Lake counties, along with more than 41% of the state’s Hispanic residents,” the IBRC analysis reported.
Among the candidates running this November for Indiana secretary of state, Lincoln Party candidate Greg Ballard issued the strongest condemnation of the Justice Department’s plans.
“This is a completely unnecessary step on the part of the federal government, and the selection of these two particular counties is incredibly suspect,” Ballard said in an email.
Libertarian Lauri Shillings, who is also running for secretary of state, said in a statement that federal monitors have observed elections in the past and are not cause for apprehension as long as they stay within the law. Still, she pointed out that the two counties on the DOJ’s radar are heavily Democratic and racially diverse areas of the state. Moreover, she noted the problems in Wyoming with the federal monitors allegedly behaving in an aggressive manner.
“This is not a partisan concern,” Shillings said. “It is a question about who runs Indiana’s elections, and the answer is Indiana. Our elections are sovereign.”
During the FOX59/CBS4 secretary of state debate on Oct. 22, Republican candidate Max Engling and Democratic candidate Beau Bayh were asked whether they had any concerns about the monitors being sent to two Indiana counties.
Engling responded that the federal monitors are part of a regular process and are not a partisan effort, noting that the Biden administration sent election watchers to 24 states.
“They were very clear that they’re not to impede the vote at all,” Engling said, referring to the Department of Justice. “They’re there to watch and to simply ensure that the actions are being taken properly.”
Bayh also indicated that problems or concerns would likely not arise on Election Day as long as the monitors do their jobs in “good faith” and work with the county clerk to make sure the election process runs smoothly.
“But if they are doing this to intimidate voters here in Indiana, that is wrong,” Bayh said. “It’s illegal and there’s no place for it.”
Bayh then addressed Engling directly.
“He just mentioned that this is bipartisan, and so why have they singled out Marion and Lake counties, Max?” Bayh asked.
Engling replied without looking at Bayh. “I guess I don’t have an answer for why the federal government is doing something, considering I’m not the federal government.”
Dwight Adams, an editor and writer based in Indianapolis, edited this article. He is a former content editor, copy editor and digital producer at The Indianapolis Star and IndyStar.com, and worked as a planner for other newspapers, including the Louisville Courier Journal.
The Indiana Citizen is a nonpartisan, nonprofit platform dedicated to increasing the number of informed and engaged Hoosier citizens. We are operated by the Indiana Citizen Education Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) public charity. For questions about the story, contact Marilyn Odendahl at marilyn.odendahl@indianacitizen.org.
