Federal monitors are headed to four Pennsylvania counties. Here's what has changed in the election fights since last week

The U.S. Justice Department has told Pennsylvania it will send election monitors to Philadelphia, Allegheny, Luzerne and Lehigh counties on Election Day, CBS 21 reported. The notice came in a letter from the department's Civil Rights Division to the state Department of State and Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt.

This is a follow-up to our Oct. 23 article on the federal court order halting Homeland Security election operations. Since then, three things have happened that voters in those counties and elsewhere may hear about before Nov. 3.

1. Monitors at the polls

According to the DOJ letter as described by CBS 21, the monitors must follow state and local rules, report problems to a team lead, may not talk to voters inside polling places and may not carry firearms. WPXI reported that the department describes them as observers who "only observe and take notes."

The Department of State's response, as reported by CBS 21, is that federal monitors have no greater legal right to be inside a polling place than any member of the public, and it encouraged them to coordinate with county election offices. The state also pointed out that the Election Code bars police within 100 feet of a polling place except to vote, serve a warrant or stop a disturbance.

2. Nine more noncitizen voting charges

On Friday, the Justice Department charged nine more Pennsylvania residents with voting as noncitizens in the 2022 or 2024 general elections, Votebeat and Spotlight PA reported. The charges are allegations and have not been proven. That brings the total since September to 20. A Votebeat and Spotlight PA analysis counted 176 allegedly fraudulent ballots out of more than 67 million votes cast in Pennsylvania since mid-2015, including these cases, and found no evidence the new cases are connected.

Separately, the federal judge's order covering Pennsylvania and eight other states halts investigations into whether noncitizens are registered to vote until polls close Nov. 3, the Associated Press reported via Spotlight PA. The judge paused it until Friday so the administration could appeal. We could not confirm whether an appeal was filed.

3. Duplicate ballots in Westmoreland County

Westmoreland County mistakenly mailed 157 voters a second mail ballot, Spotlight PA reported. A Department of State spokesperson blamed "human error" and said the state's system "will not allow more than one vote to be counted for a single voter." When a county scans a returned envelope's barcode, the voter is marked as having voted, and a second envelope with the same barcode is flagged and not counted, according to the report. The county said it will alert poll workers and refer anyone who returns both ballots to the district attorney.

Gov. Josh Shapiro said Saturday the state is "incredibly prepared" for federal challenges, WESA reported.

What the records add

The General Assembly writes Pennsylvania's election rules. Two bills that came up in this fall's debates show where things stand:

• Voter ID. House Bill 771, from Republican Rep. Thomas Mehaffie, cleared the House State Government Committee 14-12 on May 6, 2025. All 12 Republicans on the committee voted yes, joined by two Democrats, Reps. Nancy Guenst and John Inglis III; the other 12 Democrats voted no. It has been in the Appropriations Committee since May 12, 2025. Senate Republicans have instead pushed a constitutional amendment, Spotlight PA reported.
• Earlier ballot processing. House Bill 37, which would let counties start processing mail ballots a week early, passed the House 103-99 in June and has had no Senate action. We covered it in our mail ballot guide.

Neither will change anything for this election.

What happens next

The deadline to apply for a mail ballot is 5 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 27. Completed mail ballots must reach county election offices by 8 p.m. on Nov. 3, and polls are open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., as we detailed Saturday. Voters can check registration and ballot status at vote.pa.gov.