The Justice Department is dispatching federal monitors to polling locations in New Jersey and California, two Democratic states with crucial off-year elections on Tuesday.

The announcement put the decadeslong federal monitoring practice under new scrutiny, as some Democrats and voting rights activists worry that this year’s monitors could be used to undermine the voting process or as a precursor to sow doubts about the election.

Election monitors, who are Justice Department employees often highly trained in voting laws, have been dispatched by both Republican and Democratic administrations, usually in coordination with local officials, to sit at polling locations and watch for instances where federal voting rights laws may have been violated.

But this year is different, some experts say

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