Federal election monitors fanned out across Miami-Dade and Broward counties on Tuesday, Nov. 3, as part of the largest election-monitoring operation in Department of Justice history.

The DOJ deployed about 1,000 monitors and observers to jurisdictions in all 50 states, a first for the department, according to a Justice Department statement. Five Florida counties made the list: Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Hillsborough and Leon.

The operation dwarfs previous efforts. The department sent 289 monitors during the 2022 midterms and 714 for the 2024 presidential election, Newsweek reported.

Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Alina Garcia told WSVN in an Oct. 30 report that the DOJ had already notified the county it would be monitored. She said monitors observe from a distance and check whether polling sites use both Spanish and English, as required by federal law.

"They already informed us that this is one of the counties they're coming to but, probably, people will not even see that they're there," Garcia said.

Garcia also said the DOJ had warned election officials nationwide about people posing as federal monitors at early voting sites. As of Oct. 30, no such impostors had been reported in Miami-Dade or Broward, according to WSVN. Garcia said poll workers received training to spot impostors.

The Civil Rights Division coordinated the deployment. Monitors include personnel from the division, other DOJ components, U.S. Attorney's Offices and the Office of Personnel Management. The department said in an Oct. 28 court filing that FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents would not serve as monitors and that personnel would not carry firearms, according to court filings cited by Newsweek.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, who leads the Civil Rights Division, said in a statement that election integrity was a top priority and called the deployment the largest monitoring effort in DOJ history.

The monitors check compliance with federal voting-rights laws, including the Voting Rights Act, the Help America Vote Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Not everyone welcomed the expansion. Some voting-rights groups, including the NAACP, said the deployment could suppress turnout and disenfranchise voters, particularly from minority groups, according to USA Today. The NAACP sued in October seeking records about the monitoring plans, Newsweek reported.

Kristen Clarke, general counsel of the NAACP and a former assistant attorney general for civil rights, told Newsweek that monitors "are not able to speak with voters inside polling places, and they cannot interfere with election officials."

Voters with questions or complaints about federal voting rights can call the DOJ hotline at 1-800-253-3931. ADA-related concerns go to 1-800-514-0301.