New Bedford Mayor Denies DOJ Voter List Request

NEW BEDFORD (WBSM) — Mayor Jon Mitchell announced Tuesday that the City of New Bedford will not be providing voter lists to the U.S. Department of Justice, despite the federal government’s request to do so.

The Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice announced last month that it would be sending federal election monitors to 15 different jurisdictions in six states: Arizona, Michigan, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Virginia. Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Harmeet Dhillon then said on The Joe Pags Show that New Bedford would be one of those jurisdictions.

As part of that plan, the Civil Rights Division requested a list of registered voters in the city.

Weighing Federal Oversight and New Bedford's Local Autonomy

"Last month, the city received a non-binding request from the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice for the list of New Bedford’s registered voters,” Mayor Mitchell announced on the City’s Facebook page Tuesday morning. “The letter further stated that DOJ intended to send monitors to polling locations in New Bedford to assess the city’s compliance with certain provisions of the Voting Rights Act whose purpose is to facilitate voting by non-English speakers.”

“This request came as a surprise as the city has no reason to believe that it has failed to comply with these provisions,” Mitchell said. “Notably, the only explanation the Department offered for its inquiry was that the percentage of New Bedford’s residents with limited-English proficiency was 4.5 – which alone hardly makes New Bedford distinctive among American cities.”

“It is difficult to understand how the city’s voter lists, which do not indicate how well any given voter speaks English, could shed light on whether the city is properly affording non-English speakers the opportunity to understand their ballots,” he said.

Mitchell: 'Disclosure of Voter Lists Might Chill Voter Interest'

Mitchell said he is concerned the DOJ’s request is “a pretext” for the federal government to intervene in New Bedford’s elections.

"While voter lists are ordinarily available upon request, I am concerned that the Department’s inquiry is not designed to determine compliance with the Voting Rights Act, and is rather a pretext for unwarranted federal intrusion into a locally-administered election,” he said. “Given the well-established track record of the current presidential administration to question the validity of elections without a good faith basis, I am concerned that the disclosure of the voter lists might chill voter interest in the upcoming elections and cause some to question their integrity.”

“Accordingly, we have decided not to produce the voter lists to the Department,” Mitchell said.

Past New Bedford Election Glitches and Official Findings

Dhillon also said on The Joe Pags Show that monitors were being sent “to places where there have been problems with the integrity of elections,” citing issues such as “where poll workers made mistakes in giving people access or didn’t let people come in, or they used the wrong poll books, they didn’t have the correct ballots for that jurisdiction so people were denied the right to vote.”

In March 2024, in the presidential primary election, Ward 1-D opened the day without any Republican ballots for the first 40 minutes of the day, and Ward 1-F ran out of Republican ballots at around 12:15 p.m. and was without them for about 45 minutes.

The Correspondence Between the DOJ and the City of New Bedford

The City received a letter from Timothy Mellett, Deputy Chief of the Voting Section for the U.S. Department of Justice, dated July 9 “to request information regarding the City of New Bedford’s administration of federal elections.”

In the letter, which also stated monitors would be sent to New Bedford for the September 1 primary election, Mellett said the purpose of requesting the information was “to evaluate your compliance with the voter assistance requirements of the Voting Rights Act (VRA).”

“The public use file released with the Census Bureau’s December 2021 determinations under Section 203 of the VRA identified a significant population of limited-English proficient (LEP) United States citizens of voting-age in New Bedford. An estimated 4.5 percent of the city’s voting-age Hispanic citizens are LEP. Nearly one-third of all voting-age citizens who speak Spanish are LEP,” Mellette wrote. “Although New Bedford is not yet covered by Section 203, it is required under Section 208 of the VRA to ensure that voters who request assistance, including LEP, elderly, illiterate, and physically disabled individuals, are allowed to receive assistance from the person of their choice.”

The letter requested all information by August 8, 2026.

READ: The DOJ's Letter to the City of New Bedford

City Solicitor Eric Jaikes sent a response on August 10 providing links to where the requested data such as a list of precincts and polling places and other voter information could be found.

“The information that you have requested is largely available on the Elections Department page of the City’s website or on publicly available websites,” Jaikes wrote, before providing hyperlinks.

“You requested voter lists as well. I am unsure how those lists will enable you to determine how voters with limited English proficiency have difficulty exercising their voting rights,” Jaikes wrote. “The only evidence you point to in your request for voter lists is the existence in New Bedford of a significant number of limited-English proficient voting age citizens. This alone is not a basis to believe that voters in New Bedford are being deprived of their rights under the Voting Rights Act.”

READ: The City of New Bedford's Response to the DOJ

Looking Ahead to Upcoming Primaries

Mitchell said voters should not be concerned about the integrity of elections in New Bedford.

"As we always have, we will continue to administer safe, open and lawful elections in the City of New Bedford,” Mitchell said. “I encourage every registered voter to exercise their right to vote in the September 1 primaries and the general election in November."