Poll watchers from the Department of Justice, other groups on the ground in Maine
People from the Maine Veterans Alliance, left, and the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, right, monitor voting Tuesday at Montello Elementary School in Lewiston. (Russ Dillingham/Staff Photographer)
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LEWISTON — U.S. Department of Justice monitors in plain clothes were spotted Tuesday morning at the Montello School in Lewiston, as well as at polling locations in Portland and South Portland.
The man and woman in Lewiston told the Sun Journal they were with the federal agency but would not comment further.
It’s part of the DOJ’s largest-ever nationwide election monitoring effort, with about 1,000 staff expected to observe voting in all 50 states. The DOJ had announced plans to send election monitors to Portland, South Portland and Lewiston.
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The effort is led by the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, which prosecutes violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act and several voting rights laws. The DOJ is running a hotline online and by phone for complaints and questions.
Liberal, conservative and nonpartisan groups have launched their own poll-watching efforts. Democrats have expressed concern that President Donald Trump would try to influence the elections through the federal government, given his frequent unproven claims of widespread voter fraud.
Election monitors do not have to identify themselves, but Maine Trust for Local News journalists saw and confirmed that watchers from several organizations and the DOJ were at polling places in Portland, South Portland and Lewiston.
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Henry Saniuk, election warden for District Five in South Portland, said that DOJ poll watchers asked him about the training that he received as warden and if the city had hired interpreters as part of its election operation. There were two interpreters at the Redbank Community Center in South Portland who were hired by an outside organization, Saniuk said, and had only helped a handful of people as of late Tuesday afternoon.
The minority language provisions of the Voting Rights Act requires that any county or town in which at least 5% of the voting-age population is limited-English proficient provide an interpreter at the voting locations. The most recent list, created in 2021, does not list any Maine towns.
Saniuk said the DOJ staff also asked about an accessibility machine, which voters can use if they have a visual impairment or to hear an English version of the ballot read aloud. He said typically there are less than five votes cast this way each year, and that only four had been cast so far at that site today.
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Maine’s top election official, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, said Tuesday midday that despite concerns, “What we’re seeing is that things are very calm.” Bellows was at the Lewiston Armory, where two wards were casting their ballots. She said DOJ monitors “have been doing exactly what they should,” sitting quietly with other observers.
In a sign of the high interest in how the election is being run, the nonpartisan League of Women Voters of Maine said it usually gets around 70 volunteers to watch polls, and this year had 400. The organization has 250 people trained and deployed to all 16 counties, said Deputy Director Jennifer Lancaster.
“There are a lot of eyes on the election right now. But as far as we’ve seen, everything is pretty smooth and secure,” she said at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday.
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At several polling places in Portland, longtime wardens said they’d never seen the level of poll watcher presence they saw Tuesday. In some locations, there weren’t enough chairs for the observers to sit in.
By midday, the League of Women Voters had confirmed two instances of electioneering, which Lancaster said is typical. They include things like having campaign signs within the 250-foot prohibited distance, or what Lancaster called, “people getting too friendly at the entrance as voters are coming inside.”
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Overall, she was not concerned.
“A lot of these instances are pretty innocuous but we try to make sure they’re aware of Maine law,” she said. “Everyone should have full confidence that our elections are being run securely.”
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maine said four people from the office are participating in election monitoring, but he didn’t know how many total people from the DOJ were in the state Tuesday.
A half dozen poll watchers from both major political parties and the League of Women Voters were lined up against a wall inside the cafeteria at Longley School in Lewiston just after 8 a.m.
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Warden Cathy McDonald said they didn’t approach voters, but each time a voter was turned away, the observers asked election officials to explain what happened. The answer was usually because they needed two forms of identification to prove they were voting in the right ward.
Later in the morning, Christine Dyke, the lead minister at First Parish Congregational Church Gorham, was at the school and said she was one of more than a dozen faith-based poll watchers volunteering at voting places in Lewiston and Portland.
“We want to make sure that everybody’s able to vote because everybody is beloved and of equal status under God,” Dyke said.
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At the Reiche School in Portland at 10:30 a.m., site warden Susan McMillan said she had greeted poll watchers from the League of Women Voters, the Democratic Party, the Republican Party and Sen. Angus King’s office. McMillan also noted the presence of exit pollers, who were taking voluntary surveys of voters as they walked out, which she said she’d never seen before at the Reiche site.
Two DOJ poll watchers arrived later in the morning, McMillan said. They were dressed in plain clothes and stood near the front door for about an hour, she said. They asked just one question in that time — about poll workers’ training, McMillan added.
Wardens at polling places at East End School and Woodfords Club, both in Portland, also reported seeing DOJ monitors.
At Woodfords Club, warden Geri Rose said the observers were polite and asked her if any of the poll workers spoke a language other than English. The DOJ had alerted Portland officials in October via an email, reviewed by the Portland Press Herald, that one of the things DOJ observers may look for is whether polls complied with minority language provisions in the Voting Rights Act.
At East End School, Aurelia C. Scott said the DOJ observers introduced themselves as being from the agency, and were pleasant and quiet. She said they were two women also in plain clothes, and they knew they couldn’t interact with voters and they followed the rules. They stayed for about an hour and a half and Scott said there were no conflicts.
Staff Writers Dylan Tusinski, Joe Charpentier and Dana Richie contributed to this story.
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Rachel Estabrook is an accountability reporter at the Portland Press Herald. Before joining the Press Herald in 2026, Rachel worked in the newsroom at Colorado Public Radio for 12 years. She's originally. More by Rachel Estabrook
Riley covers education for the Press Herald. Before moving to Portland, she spent two years in Kenai, Alaska, reporting on local government, schools and natural resources for the public radio station KDLL. More by Riley Board
Penny is excited to be the Portland Press Herald’s first climate reporter. Since joining the paper in 2016, she has written about Maine’s lobster and cannabis industries, covered state politics and. More by Penelope Overton
Russ DillinghamStaff Photographer
A lifelong resident of Lewiston, Russ Dillingham stumbled into photography as a college student working toward a career in psychology. During summer breaks he worked in the press and composing rooms at. More by Russ Dillingham
