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Missouri just concluded the most successful election in its history, with strong voter turnout and unquestionable integrity at the ballot box. Yet right before Election Day, the Biden administration set in motion a plan to potentially challenge the fairness of our state's voting policies. It wanted to send monitors from the Department of Justice (DOJ) to observe the election in Cole County, where the state capital is located. We blocked them from coming, and it was the right call.
The Department of Justice publicly announced its intention to send monitors to Missouri on Monday, November 7, a day before polling precincts opened. The monitors were supposed to come from the department's Civil Rights Division and were charged with assessing "compliance with federal voting rights laws," as part of an effort to "protect the rights of voters." While such rhetoric sounds unobjectionable, the details are concerning, and the Biden administration has a history of weaponizing DOJ against political opponents.
To start, DOJ targeted conservative states like Missouri, as well as purple states with crucial elections. Some monitors went to California, Massachusetts, and Maryland, but the rest of the 24-state list included places like Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Wisconsin. There's good reason to assume the Biden administration was setting the stage to criticize and even sue the states it dislikes, especially for elections that didn't go the way it wanted.
Missouri is a case in point. Earlier this year, our state enacted a suite of reforms to ensure election integrity and uphold voters' right to a free and fair election. The list includes requiring photo identification and notarization of absentee ballots, banning drop boxes and pre-filled absentee applications, and empowering my office to clean voter rolls, among other reforms. These are precisely the kind of policies President Joe Biden falsely characterized as "Jim Crow 2.0." It's awfully convenient that DOJ targeted Missouri for monitoring after we rejected the demands of the president and his party.
Had we allowed the monitors to come to Missouri, I'm confident two things would have happened. First, they would have found no real issues. Second, they would have reported back to D.C. that such issues existed anyway, regardless of the facts. Early signs certainly point in that direction.
Less than two weeks before Election Day, DOJ sent a letter to the Cole County clerk alleging the county did not have voting machines compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. In fact, every polling location had the required machines. We provided DOJ clear information, but it wanted to monitor Missourians voting anyway. When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. By the same token, when you work for DOJ's Civil Rights Division, everything looks like a civil rights violation.
The DOJ under Joe Biden is grossly politicized. This is the same DOJ that threatened to investigate parents who criticize school board policies. It is the same DOJ that is prosecuting pro-life activists and pastors who rally outside abortion clinics. Time and again in the past two years, the Biden DOJ has put partisan objectives ahead of actual justice. I refused to subject the people of Missouri to a political crusade masquerading as law enforcement. And I refused to let the Biden administration lay the groundwork for a bogus election lawsuit that would waste our taxpayers' hard-earned money.
The Department of Justice didn't like it when we barred its monitors from Missouri, but the Constitution gives states authority over election administration. We know how to uphold the highest standards of democracy, and on November 8, our elections were free, fair, and fully compliant with the laws of the land. The same will be true on November 5, 2024. President Biden should assess his record of failure and what it means for our country, instead of trying to meddle in Missouri.
Jay Ashcroft is the Missouri Secretary of State.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
