The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) sent election monitors to three Tennessee counties on Tuesday, Nov. 3, as part of what the department called its largest monitoring operation ever.

Davidson, Knox and Shelby counties are the Tennessee jurisdictions where federal monitors are stationed, according to the DOJ's announcement. Williamson County and Maury County, home to Spring Hill and Thompson's Station voters, are not on the department's list.

Nationwide, the department said it deployed about 1,000 monitors and observers across all 50 states for the first time. The effort is coordinated by the DOJ's Civil Rights Division.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Civil Rights Division said in a statement that election integrity has been a top priority for the administration and the division. The department said monitors will check for compliance with federal voting-rights laws, including the Voting Rights Act, the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act.

The scale marks a sharp increase. The DOJ monitored 86 jurisdictions across 27 states during the 2024 presidential election and deployed 289 monitors for the 2022 midterms, Newsweek reported.

Monitor personnel include Civil Rights Division staff, employees from other DOJ components, U.S. attorneys' offices and federal observers from the Office of Personnel Management. In an Oct. 28 court filing, the department said FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel would not serve as monitors, according to Newsweek. The department also said monitors would not carry firearms or exercise law enforcement authority while on duty.

The deployment drew criticism from voting-rights groups. The NAACP said it believes the monitors could suppress turnout and disenfranchise voters, particularly from minority groups, USA Today 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."

In Nashville, Mayor Freddie O'Connell backed a local initiative called Nashville Guardians of Democracy, a nonprofit formed by a coalition of Nashville attorneys to deploy volunteer poll monitors at each of the city's 178 voting precincts, the Columbia Daily Herald reported.

Voters with federal voting-rights questions or complaints can call the DOJ's election-issues hotline at 1-800-253-3931 or email [email protected]. The Williamson County Election Commission lists Election Day voting information showing polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.