One of the consequences of the SCOTUS' gutting of the voting rights act was the restriction of the DOJ's ability to federal election monitors. This is one of the provisions that the Democrats are trying to restore and which is being block by the Congressional republicans
http://fortune.com/2016/07/17/us-federal-election-observers/
Federal election observers can only be sent to five states in this year’s U.S. presidential election, among the smallest deployments since the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965 to end racial discrimination at the ballot box.
The plan, confirmed in a U.S. Department of Justice fact sheet seen by Reuters, reflects changes brought about by the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision to strike down parts of the Act, a signature legislative achievement of the 1960s civil rights movement.
Voting rights advocates told Reuters they were concerned that the scaling-back of observers would make it harder to detect and counter efforts to intimidate or hinder voters, especially in southern states with a history of racial discrimination at the ballot box.
The Supreme Court ruling undercut a key section of the Act that requires such states to obtain U.S. approval before changing election laws. The court struck down the formula used to determine which states were affected.
In 2012 I had a good number of poll watchers out watching the True the Vote assholes who were out attempting to suppress the vote. The DOJ election monitors were in a number of precincts in my county and in those precincts, we did not have to worry about the True the Vote voter suppression efforts. The DOJ people were great in stopping the True the Vote idiots from suppressing the vote.
I fear that we will be seeing some nasty GOP voter suppression efforts in states where the DOJ will not be allowed to monitor elections.
Again the Congressional republicans are refusing to restore this right because they do not want GOP voter suppression efforts stopped. The VRA needs to be restored which is not going to happen why the GOP control congress