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Texas’ top election official told the US Department of Justice on Friday that election monitors are not allowed in Texas polling places, after the agency announced plans to send monitors to eight Texas counties on Election Day to ensure compliance with the laws federal voting rights laws.

The Justice Department regularly sends monitors around the country to keep an eye out for potential voting rights violations during major elections. The agency said monitors will be on site in 86 jurisdictions in 27 states — including Atascosa, Bexar, Dallas, Frio, Harris, Hays, Palo Pinto and Waller counties.

Late Friday, Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson told the federal agency that her election monitors were not among those allowed to enter. Texas polling places or in central locations where the ballots are counted according to state law.

“Be assured that Texas has robust processes and procedures in place to ensure that eligible voters can participate in free and fair elections,” Nelson. wrote a DOJ official Friday night.

For decades, the Department of Justice has dispersed election monitors across the country to observe proceedings at polling stations and places where ballots are counted. This was a power granted to the federal government by the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibited discriminatory voting practices and sought to equalize access to voting. After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down parts of the law years ago, the agency must now get permission from state and local jurisdictions to be present or get a court order.

Officials in Florida and Missouri have banned federal election monitors in 2022 — and this year, officials in Arkansas he told ABC News he wouldn’t be allowed there.

The agency did not say Friday why it chose those eight Texas counties — though it will send monitors to as many jurisdictions in Massachusetts. The Department of Justice has they regularly sent monitors to Texas — including in 2022when those monitors were sent to Dallas, Harris and Waller counties. A group of Texas Democrats at the local, state and federal levels asked the federal agency in September to send election observers to the five most populous counties of the state — though he eventually planned to send monitors to three of them.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for the Texas Secretary of State’s office he told ABC News this week that state election inspectors would be sent to “various locations” in Texas.

Election Day is Tuesday.

Disclosure: The Texas Secretary of State has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial backers play no role in Tribune journalism. Find a complete their list here.