provided training and guidance by the Department in the areas of election crimes and voting rights violations. Since 2002, the Department’s Criminal Division and Civil Rights Division have conducted training conferences for the DEOs prior to the November general elections. The Election Day Program is designed to coordinate Department responses to election-related allegations among the United States Attorneys’ Offices, FBI field offices, and Justice Department prosecutors in Washington, D.C. The Program also alerts the public to the Department’s commitment to prosecuting election fraud. Three important principles apply to the Election Day Program: • First, as with all election crime matters, the Election Day Program emphasizes the detection, evaluation, and prosecution of crimes. As a general rule, except for the activities covered by the federal voting rights laws, the Department does not have authority to directly intercede in the election process itself. • Second, except in matters involving alleged discrimination in the franchise that are covered by the civil rights statutes, the Justice Department generally has not heretofore placed observers inside open polling stations, even though there might be a reasonable basis for believing that criminal activity will occur there. This arises in part from respect for state laws governing who may be inside open polls, and in part from 18 U.S.C. § 592, which prohibits federal officials from stationing armed men at places where elections are in progress. However, there is no federal statutory bar against sending unarmed federal personnel, such as Assistant United States Attorneys, into open polling places as long as their presence is either 117