Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon said his office would be looking into how Justice Department observers conducted themselves during the state’s primary elections.
Reports indicate that some of these individuals may have behaved in an “aggressive” and “irregular” fashion, according to NBC News.
Wyoming Republican Gov. Mark Gordon expressed concern Wednesday over how election observers from the U.S. Justice Department observed the state’s primaries last week, saying it was “aggressive” and “irregular.”
“It sounded like the behavior of the observers was a bit aggressive,” he said at a state canvassing board meeting Wednesday.
“It just was irregular and I have asked the attorney general to start looking into, you know, kind of the nature of the visits and all that sort of stuff,” Gordon added.
He said that state and local officials had not been told ahead of time of the DOJ’s plans. He added that while he was not “objecting to the observers,” their “behavior seemed to exceed what the authority that Congress had given them was.”
“I’m not saying anything went wrong or anything else, and I certainly think the conduct of this election was phenomenal,” Gordon said.
Laramie County Clerk Debra Lee, a Republican, also criticized the conduct of the DOJ monitors as “a poorly managed exercise and one that showed complete disregard for our state laws and administration of our elections.”
“Shortly after learning of their presence, I spoke with a DOJ official in Washington who informed me that the decision to deploy monitors to Wyoming was made on short notice, and an email had been sent to me, but it may have gone to the wrong address,” she said in a statement to NBC News.
It is critical for voters in our constitutional republic to have confidence in our elections. Under @AGToddBlanche’s leadership, this @CivilRights Divison is taking action by cleaning the voter rolls and sending election monitors to jurisdictions to ensure a smooth Election Day. pic.twitter.com/FHExwkkaD9
— AAGHarmeetDhillon (@AAGDhillon) August 21, 2026
The DOJ said it plans to send about 1,000 election observers to polling places across the country for November’s midterm elections. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon described the initiative as historic. She told Bloomberg that the agency respects state laws regarding the distance observers must maintain from polling sites.
The monitors will watch for various issues including obstacles facing disabled voters and possible fraudulent activity. So far, DOJ staff has already monitored polling sites in Miami-Dade County, Florida, and Laramie County, Wyoming “to ensure transparency, ballot security, and compliance with federal law,” according to a DOJ press release.
We @theJusticeDept are sending election monitors to specific “hotspots” across 6 states for the upcoming primary elections. Stay tuned for a further action from @CivilRights to safeguard the civil right to vote in the upcoming primaries, and November’s general election! pic.twitter.com/vMVUvPqyHp
— AAGHarmeetDhillon (@AAGDhillon) July 9, 2026
The department said it sent over 80 monitors to more than 200 polling locations in seven states during this primary season. There are plans to place monitors in Massachusetts and New Hampshire as well.
CBS News reported that the DOJ sent 714 people to 86 jurisdictions in 27 states in 2024 and 289 people in 2022. The agency plans to recruit volunteers from within its ranks.
Editor's Note: The Democrats are doing everything in their power to undermine the integrity of our elections.
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