The lawyer overseeing the Justice Department’s election monitoring in Pa. is part of a national effort – Inquirer.com

The lawyer overseeing the Justice Department’s election monitoring in Pa. is part of a national effort  Inquirer.com

James T. Catania sent a letter to Pennsylvania officials saying the department would send monitors to four counties on Election Day. Other lawyers have sent similar letters to other states. The Justice Department’s plan to send monitors to polling places in four Pennsylvania counties — including Philadelphia — is being overseen by a lawyer who joined the agency earlier this year, and whose background includes stints at private firms working on municipal law, corporate issues, and labor and employment matters. James T. Catania, a trial lawyer in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, sent a letter last week to Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt saying federal monitors would be sent to Philadelphia, Allegheny, Luzerne, and Lehigh Counties for the Nov.

3 election to ensure polling places were complying with federal election laws, including the Voting Rights Act. Catania — who joined the Justice Department in May, according to his LinkedIn page — is not alone in helping coordinate that effort. In his letter to Schmidt, he said he was the “regional coordinator” overseeing monitors in Pennsylvania, and he sent similar letters to officials in Michigan and Ohio in which he said at least one other attorney would be providing additional assistance. At least five other Justice Department lawyers have sent letters with the same messages to election officials in