WASHINGTON — The U.S. Justice Department plans to have federal observers at polling places in five New England cities on Election Day, Nov. 3: Boston and Lowell in Massachusetts, and Portland, South Portland and Lewiston in Maine.

In Maine, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said the department had notified all three communities of its plans, Maine Public reported. South Portland is the newest addition; the department had earlier said it would send monitors to Portland and Lewiston, according to the Portland Press Herald.

The Massachusetts cities were reported by WBUR, the only outlet consulted by The Signal to name them. Whether other Massachusetts communities will also get observers is unclear, and no outlet has said how many monitors will go to any one city.

Secretary of State Bill Galvin, the state's top election official, described the observers' job. "The federal observers will be there to verify these are in fact being made available to voters, that the polling locations are accessible, and if there's language issues, that there's services for them, whether it be a ballot printed in their language or translation services," he told WBUR.

Galvin said he has worked alongside such monitors for years, that federal officials have come to both cities before, and that he expects the state and the department to keep voting running smoothly. "It's nothing new. It has happened under every administration," he told WBUR.

He also said voter unease is easy to explain. "First of all, the statements that have been coming out of the Trump White House, but more importantly, the actions of the Justice Department that in many cases seem to be hostile to the rights of voters, and certainly to those of us in Massachusetts and other jurisdictions like us," Galvin told WBUR. "I mean, that's not imaginary."

Galvin drew a line between watching a precinct, which he said is open to any person, and disrupting the vote, which he said is not allowed.

Across the country, the department's Civil Rights Division posted on social media that about 1,000 observers would be deployed, WBUR reported. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon wrote that it was "the largest monitoring effort" the department has ever mounted.

WBUR reported that the Trump administration's attempts to sway local elections have put a brighter spotlight on the deployments in 2026, even though sending monitors to enforce federal voting law is a common step.