The Justice Department on Wednesday accused Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones of “political posturing” over Election Day guidance that tells local election officials to call police if federal agents approach or enter polling places.
The 10-page bulletin, dated Oct. 15, was issued jointly by Jones’s office and the Virginia Department of Elections to local election officials ahead of Tuesday’s vote. It is the sharpest example yet of a national fight between Democratic state officials and the Justice Department over federal election monitors.
What the bulletin says
According to Fox News, the guidance advises officials to call police if federal agents approach or enter a polling place, while cautioning them not to physically block the agents. It tells them to document what agents do, consult lawyers and stay in contact with local prosecutors and police. It says officials “should call local law enforcement immediately” if “an armed individual attempts to gain access to a polling location.”
The bulletin also tells officials to scrutinize requests from DOJ election monitors and to prepare for federal subpoenas for ballots or voting equipment. On page 4, it says ordinary DOJ monitors need local permission to enter polling places, under rules similar to those for neutral observers.
Former Republican Del. Tim Anderson posted a page-by-page summary on X on Oct. 16. He said the bulletin directs officials to record agents’ badge numbers, weapons, vehicles and movements and to collect complaints from voters who say agents frighten them, Potomac Local News reported. Anderson wrote that “the bulletin identifies no specific planned unlawful federal operation in Virginia,” according to RedState.
Earlier this year, Comrade Spanberger issued EO16, restricting ICE’s use of nonpublic state property and directing guidance for immigration enforcement encounters at polling places. I understand the concern about ICE entering elementary schools and removing children. I agree that children deserve protection. But someone illegally in this country who knowingly casts an illegal vote should be investigated and prosecuted. Protecting access for lawful voters should never become an excuse to shield voter fraud. Now Attorney General Jay Jones says his office will enforce Virginia’s election laws. Then answer this, Attorney General: Does that include prosecuting noncitizens who knowingly vote illegally—with the same enthusiasm you bring to protecting access to the polls? (We know this is a big fat No). Enforce the whole law.
— Tim Anderson (@AssocAnderson) October 13, 2026
DOJ fires back
A Justice Department spokesperson said the guidance attacks “a strawman” and that DOJ monitors will do the “routine monitoring we’ve done for decades.” The spokesperson called the directive “bluster and political posturing for his own self-interested purposes.” DOJ plans to send monitors to Fairfax and Prince William counties.
Republican legislators joined in. Del. Wren Williams said Jones “has his election-security priorities backward” and asked why poll workers would collect ICE agents’ badge numbers instead of checking voter ID. State Sen. Danny Diggs, a former York County sheriff, said that in 45 years in law enforcement he never saw an officer or observer “make a polling place less safe” and called the guidance “reckless.”
A national fight
Virginia is one front in a wider dispute. The Justice Department plans to send about 1,000 monitors to polling places on Tuesday and calls the effort “routine,” the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Its list includes Lake and Marion counties in Indiana and six Georgia counties, among them Fulton, Cobb, DeKalb, Gwinnett and Chatham, according to The Currentin Savannah.
Democrats in several states have treated the monitors as a threat. Savannah Mayor Van Johnson said Chatham County is “on a DOJ hit list,” and a Democratic state lawmaker there called the department “a Trump vengeance machine.” New Mexico this year became the first state to bar armed federal agents from polling places, with fines of up to $50,000 per violation, and similar bills have been filed in Democratic-led states from California to Rhode Island, the Associated Pressreported. Virginia lawmakers considered a bill to bar federal civil immigration arrests within 40 feet of polling places. When the DOJ sent monitors to five California counties for last year’s special election, Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the state would send observers to watch the federal observers, The Hill reported.
Republicans see nothing unusual in it. Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita said he welcomes the monitors on Nov. 3 “and maybe even before.” Lake County Republican Chair Randy Niemeyer noted that federal monitors “were here in 2016 under the Obama administration” and said he recalls no intimidation problems then.
The administration has also told states that immigration agents won’t be at the polls. In February, DHS election official Heather Honey told secretaries of state that “any suggestion that ICE will be present at any polling location is simply not true,” according to Arizona’s Democratic secretary of state, Adrian Fontes, Fox News reported.
Background
Virginia this year repealed the process that let voters and election officers challenge a voter’s eligibility at the polls on Election Day. That law, HB 640, took effect July 1.
During his 2025 campaign for attorney general, 2022 text messages surfaced in which Jones described a hypothetical in which he would shoot then-House Speaker Todd Gilbert twice, the Washington Examiner reported in October 2025.
Jones announced his Voter Protection Section on Oct. 13, saying “the right to vote will be defended.” Fox News asked his office and the Department of Elections for comment and did not report a reply.
After Charlie Kirk and Donald Trump were both shot in the head by Democrats you probably don’t need *more* proof that Democrats want to kill you… But if you do, boy do I have a story for you. Meet Jay Jones. Jay is the Democrat candidate for Attorney General of Virginia. Jay publicly fantasizes about shooting his GOP rival, House Speaker Todd Gilbert, twice in the head and pissing on his grave. He also wished death on Gilbert’s small children, calling them ‘little fascists’ saying that only when people ‘feel pain’ personally do they move on policy. President Trump, JD Vance, and even MSNBC have demanded Jones drop out immediately, yet the Democratic Party and all their support groups have KEPT their full endorsement of Jones. They have doubled down on the guy who wants to murder Republican children. That tells you everything. Democrats are the party of violence and domestic terrorism. They will vote for people who want to kill you and your children for power. These people want you dead. They aren’t even hiding it. Many Democrats think this way. Jay Jones must drop out and face a full investigation. This is the same dangerous sickness that led to Charlie Kirk’s assassination and two attempts on President Trump’s life. Enough.
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) October 6, 2025
The bottom line
Federal election monitors are nothing new. The Justice Department sent them under President Obama, and they watch for violations of federal voting law. DHS told the states eight months ago that ICE would not be at the polls. Even so, Democratic officials from Richmond to Santa Fe to Savannah are preparing for a confrontation that federal officials say is not coming, and Jones has gone furthest by telling local officials to treat federal officers as suspects, write down their badge numbers and weapons, and call local police on them.
At the same time, Virginia has taken away the ability of voters and election officers to challenge an ineligible voter at the polls. The state’s chief law enforcement officer is preparing poll workers to confront federal agents while giving them fewer tools to stop an illegal vote.
Voters in Virginia, Georgia and every other state are better served when observers from both parties and the federal government can watch the count. Registrars should follow federal law, admit lawful DOJ monitors and leave police calls for real emergencies. If any locality blocks monitors on Tuesday, the Justice Department should be in court that day.