Can’t wait to hear the backstory on this federal excursion.

“Officials in the Village of Kiryas Joel filed a number of complaints over what they say are violations of election law in Tuesday’s election. A representative of the US Justice Department was on-site observing the elections.”

Some information on Kiryas Joel:

Kiryas Joel (also known as Kiryas Yoy’l, “Kiryas Yo’el” or KJ) (Yiddish: קרית יואל (Kiryas Yoyel) is a village within the town of Monroe in Orange County, New York, United States. The great majority of its residents are Hasidic Jews who strictly observe the Torah and its commandments, and belong to the worldwide Satmar Hasidic dynasty.

Most of the village’s residents speak Yiddish as their first language. The village has the youngest median age (13.2) of any population center of over 5,000 residents in the United States.Residents of Kiryas Joel, like those of other Haredi Jewish communities, typically have large families. Kiryas Joel is the place in the United States with the highest percentage of people who reported Hungarian ancestry, as 18.9% of the population reported Hungarian ancestry in 2000.

Kiryas Joel is part of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the larger New York–Newark–Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA Combined Statistical Area.

According to 2008 census figures, the village has the highest poverty rate in the nation. More than two-thirds of residents live below the federal poverty line and 40% receive food stamps.
 
It is widely believed that no candidates run for the village’s board or the school board unless first approved by the grand rebbe Rabbi Aron Teitelbaum. In 2001, Kiryas Joel held a competitive election in which all candidates supported by the grand rebbe were re-elected by a 60–40% margin.

 A case against the village is currently pending in federal district court; plaintiffs, who are asking for the village to be dissolved, say that Kiryas Joel is a theocracy whose existence violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, where local government leaders abuse the laws, such as those for tax-exempt status, zoning, and sanitation, to favor members of their own sect and persecute other Orthodox Jews. They also say that the leaders commit vote fraud by intimidating dissident voters and busing in non-residents