SALT LAKE CITY — Lt. Governor Deidre Henderson met Monday with officials from the U.S. Department of Justice, who plan to deploy election monitors to observe polling places in the state.
"They couldn’t tell us a lot of details but they did say there will be 12 monitors in total that will be visiting six or seven polling locations," Lt. Gov. Henderson told FOX 13 News on Monday. "They’ll be going in pairs to polling locations in Salt Lake County."
Watch Henderson's interview with FOX 13 News' Ben Winslow in the video player below.
Lt. Gov. Henderson, who is Utah's chief elections officer, said Salt Lake County Clerk Lannie Chapman was also on the virtual meeting on Monday with DOJ officials.
"From what they said, their intent is to observe and then let us know if there’s any problems or concerns that they see," she said. "We still have a couple of questions about some of the details that we’ll be working through, but from what it sounds like they’re looking to make sure people have language access, that the Americans with Disabilities Act is being followed and people who need a provisional ballot won’t be turned away."
Lt. Gov. Henderson said she believed voters would be fine with the monitors, but still urged people to get their ballots in early and to sign up for the state's tracking service, which can notify you when your ballot is received and counted.
Voters can sign up for ballot tracking here.
The meeting took place just days after a federal judge threw out a lawsuit the DOJ had filed against Lt. Gov. Henderson, seeking access to unredacted voter rolls. She had argued state and federal law prohibited her from giving out the information, which can include Social Security numbers, birth dates, driver license numbers and other personally identifying data.
So far, the DOJ has not won a single lawsuit it has filed against states over the info. As of Monday, 27 states had prevailed in denying the feds access to unredacted voter rolls. A spokesperson for the Justice Department told FOX 13 News on Saturday that it would appeal the ruling in Utah's case.
"I'm not surprised they will appeal," Lt. Gov. Henderson said Monday. "They’ve appealed all of their losses and so that wasn’t a big surprise to me."
The lawsuit did not come up during Monday's call, Lt. Gov. Henderson said.
One of the voter-rights groups that intervened in that lawsuit said it would continue to side with Lt. Gov. Henderson. The League of Women Voters of Utah and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People had intervened, arguing in court papers they feared the Trump administration would use the information to create a database and target people for political reasons.
"What we want voters to know is that your elections are secure and safe," said Katharine Biele, the League's president. "As I've said, we have a great Lt. Governor who has protected our voting records. We are not quite sure what the federal government is doing in Utah. Why Utah?"
Biele told FOX 13 News the League intends to have its own people out watching polls — and monitoring the DOJ's election monitors.
"We will be at the polls along with the ACLU for very different reasons than the federal government," she said. "We will be there to make sure voters are not intimidated."