Justice Department policy reversal could open voter fraud inquiries before polls close

Within weeks of Election Day, the US Department of Justice has lifted a policy preventing prosecutors from interfering in elections, even if their involvement risks affecting the outcome.

The change, revealed in a memo obtained by ProPublica and The New York Times, reverses a policy that has been in place for more than three decades barring investigations into election crimes within the months leading up to the day of an election, a measure to curb fears that the agency’s interference could harm voter turnout and erode confidence in election integrity.

According to an email from an official at the Public Integrity Section, the memo creates "an exception to the general non-interference with elections policy” that allows US attorneys to open election fraud investigations before polls are closed in cases allegedly involving postal workers or military employees, which transport mail-in ballots.

The exception applies to cases in which “the integrity of any component of the federal government is implicated by election offences within the scope of the policy including but not limited to misconduct by federal officials or employees administering an aspect of the voting process through the United States Postal Service, the Department of Defense or any other federal department or agency," according to the memo reviewed by ProPublica.

In a statement, the Justice Department said such changes are “simply part” of the Public Integrity Section’s routine field guidance ahead of elections.

Voting rights advocates have said that the move marks an unusual and hostile escalation of threats to election integrity, following the president’s baseless claims about widespread voter fraud and refusal to accept the outcome of the election.

Mr Trump has continued to rail against unfounded allegations of fraud, pointing to slow results counts , errors being corrected by local election officials, disenfranchisement issues, and dumped mail that didn’t even include ballots as evidence of faud.

A recent announcement about an incomplete Justice Department investigation into a ballot issue in Pennsylvania prompted fears that the president intends to rely on the strength of his Justice Department and US Attorney General William Barr to curb vote-by-mail efforts during the coronavirus pandemic.

In that case, the Justice Department published, then removed, then re-issued a press release that announced an “inquiry” into whether nine military ballots, some of which were case for the president, were illegally discarded, an announcement first leaked by the White House and briefed to the president by the attorney general.

The president invoked the case to support his claims about voter fraud, but election officials in Pennsylvania said it was done in error by a temporary seasonal independent contractor who had “incorrectly discarded” several ballots. Officials did not know to whom the ballots had been cast until the Justice Department’s announcement.

Legal analysts were stunned that the agency and administration would announce an investigation in progress, contrary to policy, while also disclosing how the ballots were cast in an apparent attempt to connect the case to the GOP’s false claims.

"While the actions of this individual has cast a concern, the above statement shows that the system of checks and balances set forth in Pennsylvania elections works," Luzerne County Manager David Pedri said in a statement. "An error was made, a public servant discovered it and reported it to law enforcement at the local, state and federal level who took over to ensure the integrity of the system in place.”