Federal election monitors were spotted outside polling stations in New Haven Tuesday.
Four monitors were sent to the city by the Trump administration to observe compliance with federal voting rights laws, asking people if materials were available in English and Spanish.
Voter Jeremy Anderson noticed an election monitor outside his polling location in Westville.
"He just stood there with his notepad, and he was being screamed at by a man who was obviously angry," Anderson said. "I'm enraged myself about what's going on in this country right now. But I'm not going to turn it on a citizen."
New Haven's Democratic and Republican registrars of voters denied federal monitors access to polling places, citing state law and concerns about voter intimidation and efforts to undermine public confidence in elections.
The Department of Justice sent approximately 1,000 election monitors across all 50 states — the largest deployment in the department’s history. Federal officials say the monitors are checking for compliance with the federal voting rights statutes that fall within the department's Civil Rights Division.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said in a statement that she was proud of the department's efforts in "pursuing transparency for elections in an assertive and nondiscriminatory manner.”
Laura Cahn is the Democratic ward co-chair for Ward 26 in New Haven. She spent the day greeting voters outside a polling station in Westville, where she saw a federal election monitor at 6:30 a.m.
Cahn said the election monitor asked voters if materials inside and outside the station were available in English and Spanish. But she worried the man's presence felt like an invasion of privacy to voters.
"We want everyone to feel like their vote is confidential and that they are absolutely free to vote, and this is their right," Cahn said. "And we don't want anyone to stop to make people stop and wonder if people are watching them."
Joshua Foley, senior council for State Elections Enforcement Commission, said his Connecticut election watchdog hotline had received about 60 calls by midday Tuesday on a variety of topics, but nothing about Ward 26.
Before Tuesday, state officials said they didn't know exactly where in New Haven the federal monitors would be.
Under state law, federal observers aren't allowed inside polling places.
Local officials received notice last week and quickly pushed back. New Haven's Democratic and Republican registrars of voters said they were worried rhetoric and actions by the federal government were intended to cast doubt on election integrity and intimidate voters.
The Department of Justice told the city the monitors will not have the authority to arrest or detain anyone, and that they will remain outside a 75-foot zone established by state law.
"Thousands of New Haveners have already cast their ballot in this year’s election, and voters should continue to feel comfortable and confident going to the polls," New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said in a statement.
John Pavia, a professor at Quinnipiac University, says the federal action is out of the ordinary for a state like Connecticut.
"Historically, these monitors most often would be sent to districts and states down south where there were issues of intimidation and fishy voter rolls, not places like Connecticut," Pavia said. "So that much is somewhat rare."
