Judge Reggie Walton on 2 November let the Justice Department send about 1,000 poll monitors, but barred them from carrying weapons, wearing uniforms or making arrests.
Walton let DOJ's poll monitors deploy but stripped them of weapons, uniforms and arrest powers.
US District Judge Reggie Walton on 2 November refused to stop the Department of Justice's planned 1,000 or so poll monitors, but ordered them unarmed, out of uniform and without arrest powers, The Washington Sun reported1. The ruling came the day before polling.
The NAACP had sued in October for the records behind the department's monitoring plan. Walton's order allowed the deployment but set the conditions under which the monitors could attend.
The US Justice Department planned to send about 1,000 officials to watch voting at polling places. A federal judge in Washington, Reggie Walton, allowed this but set limits. The monitors could not carry weapons, wear uniforms or arrest anyone. They could observe, but not act as law enforcement.
Federal law has long barred troops or armed men at polling places; Arlington County's separate suit relies on an 1865 statute to that effect. Walton's conditions follow that line: no weapons and no policing role, while the deployment itself went ahead.
The department's monitoring plan had already drawn a records suit from the NAACP in October, so the scope of the monitors' role was contested before Walton ruled.
A federal court allowed federal poll monitors while barring weapons, uniforms and arrest powers.
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