• Federal trial juries, which are drawn from a broader geographic area than are most state juries, and thus lessen the possibility of local bias. • Resources to handle the labor-intensive investigations generally required for successful prosecution of election crime. • Detachment from local political forces and interests. FEDERAL ROLE: PROSECUTION, NOT INTERVENTION The principal responsibility for overseeing the election process rests with the states. With the significant exception of violations of the Voting Rights Act involving denigration of the right to vote based on race, ethnicity, or language minority status, the federal government plays a role secondary to that of the states in election matters. 1 It is the states that have primary authority to ensure that only qualified individuals register and vote, that the polling process is conducted fairly, and that the candidate who received the most valid votes is certified as the winner. 2 The federal prosecutor’s role in matters involving corruption of the process by which elections are conducted, on the other hand, focuses on prosecuting individuals who commit federal crimes in connection with an election. Deterrence of future similar crimes is an important objective of such federal prosecutions. However, this deterrence is achieved by public 1 When election offenses are driven by animus based on race, ethnicity, or language-minority status, the broad protections of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and other civil rights statutes apply. 52 U.S.C. §§ 10101, 10301, 10303(f), & 10503. Such matters are supervised by the Civil Rights Division. 2 Of course, the U.S. electoral college presents an exception. 8