The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the federal government’s human resources agency, announced on Thursday that it is reviewing the costs of a federal election observer program designed to address racial discrimination in voting. The agency said it is working in consultation with the Justice Department to determine whether the program’s expenses—estimated at about $2.5 million in 2025—are justified and whether any reforms may be required.
The OPM clarified that the observer program is only deployed when the U.S. attorney general receives a “written meritorious complaint” alleging racial discrimination in voting. The initiative was significantly reduced following a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court ruling involving Alabama’s Shelby County, which weakened a key provision of the Voting Rights Act that had required jurisdictions with a history of discrimination to obtain federal approval before altering voting laws.
According to the OPM, the federal observer program is currently active in three locations where court orders have been issued, including Union County in New Jersey, Pawtucket in Rhode Island, and two areas in Alaska. The review comes ahead of the upcoming U.S. midterm elections scheduled for November, with President Donald Trump’s Republican Party presently holding a narrow majority in both chambers of Congress.
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