BOSTON — The Department of Justice is sending election monitors to two Massachusetts cities this year for the September primary, with the Bay State among five other states where federal monitors will be observing voter activity.

The directive was announced this week by Assistant Attorney General for the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division Harmeet Dhillon, who named Massachusetts along with Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Virginia as the states the monitors will oversee in their respective primary elections.

Dhillon says 15 specific jurisdictions in each state have been selected for monitoring, including Boston and New Bedford in Massachusetts.

“This is an important goal that increases voter confidence and it’s also important to make sure our voting is accurate so that every citizen who votes has their vote counted equally without being canceled out by somebody who shouldn’t be voting,” Dhillon said in a video posted to X.

Illegal immigrants using stolen identities to vote in local, state and federal elections have been documented several times in Massachusetts.

In May, U.S. Attorney Leah Foley’s office announced the arrest of a legal permanent resident from Saugus for allegedly illegally voting in elections since 2008.

In February, an illegal immigrant in Boston was convicted in federal court for voting in the 2024 presidential election, among other crimes.

In March, the Boston City Council took up legislation that would allow noncitizens to vote in local elections.

New Bedford has also had recent issues with voter access, most recently in a March 2024 city election where one precinct opened without any Republican ballots for nearly an hour while another ran out of GOP ballots hours before polls closed.

Dhillon also says the monitors will ensure the listed jurisdictions are working to eliminate language barriers, facilitate access for disabled voters, and other issues related to civil rights, something she says the DOJ has done for decades.

“What we hope to do here is increase voter confidence, make there are no language barriers or (lack of) access to voting for Americans with disabilities, or failure to make sure that polling places are open for the amount of time necessary and that everyone has appropriate access to vote who should be allowed to vote,” said Dhillon.

In 2022, the DOJ sent monitors to nine jurisdictions during primary elections that year. In 2024, monitors were sent to a total of 27 different jurisdictions, Dhillon says.

Secretary of State Bill Galvin’s office tells the Herald they are only aware of election monitors coming to Boston for the primary election, something Communications Director Deb O’Malley describes as routine and related to federal language requirements on voter ballots.

O’Malley says all election monitors are welcome in Massachusetts as long as they do not interfere with voters.

“I’m proud to be helping organize this effort and send those monitors to help increase all citizens’ confidence in the outcome of our elections,” added Dhillon.

Dhillon forecasts “an even more expanded” list of jurisdictions for the general election in November.

The Herald has reached out to the City of New Bedford for comment.

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