HispanicBusiness

Federal prosecutors and FBI agents will be on duty on Election Day to field complaints of voter intimidation, bribery, vote buying and related crimes, U.S. Attorney David Hickton announced today.

The office has set up a hotline at 412-894-7516. Mr. Hickton has appointed Assistant U.S. Attorney Shaun Sweeney as Western Pennsylvania's district election officer.

FBI agents can be reached on Tuesday at 412-432-4000, and the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division Voting Section in Washington can be reached at 1-800-253-3931 or 202-307-2767 or online, the office announced.

"The Department of Justice will act promptly and aggressively to protect the integrity of the election process," Mr. Hickton said in a press release, which indicated that enforcement of voter rights is a longstanding role of the Department of Justice.

Federal law, according to the release, "contains special protections for the rights of voters and provides that they can vote free from acts that intimidate or harass them. For example, actions of persons designed to interrupt or intimidate voters at polling places by questioning or challenging them, or by photographing or videotaping them, under the pretext that these are actions to uncover illegal voting may violate federal voting rights law."