As polls opened on Tuesday, the justice department announced it was sending election monitors to four Michigan cities to supervise the vote.
While elections are run by US states and local governments, federal laws govern some voting practices. Political parties and candidates typically have their own election monitors at polling sites.
The move, announced by the department’s civil rights division, comes at a time when the Trump administration has sought to increase the federal government’s involvement in elections.
“Our primary monitoring efforts continue today as we seek to ensure free and fair elections nationwide,” Harmeet K Dhillon, who heads the division, said in a statement, which also urged the public to report possible violations.
Trump has repeatedly made unsubstantiated claims of widespread fraud in US elections. In March, he signed an executive order seeking to severely restrict mail-in voting and he has also pushed lawmakers to pass new legislation that would radically reform electoral voter registration procedures.
So far, lawmakers have not passed the proposed legislation and his mail-in order has been blocked in federal courts as he appeals.
Tuesday’s monitoring efforts in the cities of Detroit, Hamtramck, Lansing, and East Lansing could be a precursor to wider plans by the Trump administration for November’s midterm elections.
Additional reporting by Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu
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