The U.S. Department of Justice will be keeping a close eye on Fairfax County’s upcoming Aug. 4 Congressional primaries.
The county is one of two jurisdictions in Virginia, along with Prince William County, where the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division plans to send election monitors, VPM News and the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported today (Monday).
Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon announced in a social media post last week (July 7) that her office will be dispatching election monitors to 15 jurisdictions in six different states during the 2026 primary season, stating that the cities and counties were chosen because “there may have been some problems in recent elections.”
While Dhillon only identified the targeted states, which include Virginia as well as Arizona, Michigan, Massachusetts, Minnesota and New Hampshire, the department’s press office confirmed that the jurisdictions in Virginia will be Fairfax and Prince William — both Democratic-leaning localities, according to VPM News.
FFXnow has reached out to the DOJ for comment on why Fairfax County was chosen and what kinds of “problems” are believed to have cropped up in past elections.
Fairfax County Office of Elections spokesperson Sean Stewart confirmed that the office received a letter from the DOJ indicating that it will have election monitors at polling places during the Aug. 4 primary. In the letter, the department also sought information on the county’s bilingual election program, which assists voters whose primary language is Spanish or Vietnamese, as required by the Voting Rights Act.
“Our office has no additional information at this time,” Stewart said in a statement to FFXnow by email. “The Fairfax County Office of Elections adheres to state law and supporting guidance from the Virginia Department of Elections in administering county elections.”
In her video announcement, Dhillon noted that the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division has “routinely” sent election monitors to different jurisdictions under both Democratic and Republican administrations. The previous Biden administration, for example, monitored 64 localities in 24 states during the 2022 general election.
Dhillon said the goal of sending election monitors for this primary season is to “increase voter confidence” and ensure “everyone has appropriate access to vote,” including for people who may encounter language barriers and people with disabilities.
At the same time, she said the DOJ wants to “make sure that our voting is accurate so that every citizen who votes has their vote counted equally without being canceled out by somebody who shouldn’t be voting.”
“I’m proud to be helping organize this effort and send those monitors to help increase all citizens’ confidence in the outcome of our election,” she said. “And stay tuned as we get toward the general election where there will be an even more expanded program for vote monitors, as DOJ has done for decades in our great nation.”
Some Democratic officials, however, have questioned the intentions of the federal government’s current election monitoring plan, given President Donald Trump’s history of casting doubt on the results of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Joe Biden.
Dhillon is among several current Trump administration officials who have echoed his claims that the 2020 election was rigged or should be overturned. Per the New York Times, she’s leading a push by the DOJ to obtain voter roll data from states — attempts that courts have repeatedly blocked.
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Attorney General Dana Nessel, both Democrats, said the DOJ sent letters to officials in Detroit, East Lansing and Lansing with “baseless accusations” of long lines, a lack of provisional ballots and issues with electronic voting equipment for people with disabilities during the 2024 general election. Local leaders in East Lansing also disputed the DOJ’s claims.
“Neither the election monitoring nor federal observer program gives the DOJ authority to interfere with state or local administration of elections or to demand the production of documents or hands-on access to voting equipment or election materials,” Benson and Nessel said.
In Virginia, state Sen. Lamont Bagby, who chairs the state’s Democratic Party, said in a statement that federal election monitors play an important role in “ensuring compliance with federal law,” but they should “never be used to cast doubt on or undermine confidence” in the electoral process:
“Virginia has a long history of conducting secure, fair, and transparent elections. The trust of voters has been earned through the professionalism, integrity, and unwavering commitment of our local election officials. Federal election monitors have long played a role in ensuring compliance with federal law, but that responsibility should never be used to cast doubt on or undermine confidence in our electoral process. The Democratic Party of Virginia will continue to support free, fair, and secure elections, stand behind the dedicated officials who administer them, and defend the integrity of our democracy. Virginians can remain confident that elections across the Commonwealth will continue to be conducted responsibly, transparently, and in accordance with federal and state law.”
While the Fairfax County Democratic Committee didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, the Fairfax County Republican Committee said it “welcomes the presence of election monitors” in the county.
“For a number of years we have been flagging concerns about known and potential non-citizen voting, concerns which have not been addressed,” Fairfax GOP Chair Katie Gorka said, pointing to a report by the volunteer nonprofit Electoral Process Education Corporation that claimed data showed 399 identified “non-citizens” had a voting history between May 2023 and June 2024.
Gorka said the Fairfax GOP also has concerns about Virginia allowing automatic voter registration through the Department of Motor Vehicles and other government agencies and offering driver privilege cards to non-U.S. citizens, though they’re not an accepted form of identification for voting since holders aren’t eligible to vote.
“Given these many issues, we welcome the presence of election monitors and feel that they will help ensure confidence in Virginia’s electoral process,” Gorka said.
The Justice Department recently sent letters to election officials in all states and D.C. threatening prosecution for “aiding and abetting” noncitizen voting — an extremely rare occurrence with no evidence of any coordinated campaigns, a 2025 analysis by the Center for Election Innovation and Research found.
Virginia typically updates its voter rolls on a monthly basis, but under then-Gov. Glenn Youngkin, purges in 2023 and 2024 were found to have erroneously removed thousands of eligible voters.
A federal judge found that sweeping removals of Virginia voters in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election were illegal because they occurred within 90 days of an election, though the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the purge to resume. At least one lawsuit challenging the purge was settled this past April.
In response to Youngkin’s August 2024 executive order, the Fairfax County Electoral Board adopted a policy allowing individuals flagged as non-citizens on the voter rolls to be referred for potential prosecution. Intentionally voting without being qualified is a felony in Virginia.
The county removed 107 individuals identified by the Virginia Department of Elections as “potential non-citizens” between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, according to a Feb. 18 report to the electoral board. Nine of those people affirmed their citizenship, while the other 98 people were referred to the commonwealth’s attorney and state attorney general.
When the policy was adopted in September 2024, Katherine Hanley, the board’s lone Democratic member at the time, raised concerns about the letter sent to confirm individuals’ citizenship status looking like a hoax and creating confusion. Election officials and records also indicated that many people were flagged as noncitizens due to paperwork errors, the Washington Post reported.
Last year, Youngkin directed state election officials to share data with the federal government, including U.S. Homeland Security, in an effort to remove ineligible voters. A federal judge blocked the Trump administration last month from using a tool for searching voter rolls that voter and privacy advocates argued gave officials access to sensitive, personal information and raised the risk of valid voters getting incorrectly purged.
The Fairfax County Office of Elections has a webpage detailing its procedures for ensuring elections are conducted securely without impeding voter access.
Early voting in the Aug. 4 primary has been underway since June 18. The ballot includes one Democratic race for the 8th Congressional District and two Republican contests to determine challengers for the 10th Congressional District and Mark Warner’s U.S. Senate seat.
In-person early voting will expand to another 13 locations on July 25.
