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Texas' top election official told the U.S. Department of Justice on Friday that poll watchers would not be allowed at polling places in the state, after the federal agency announced plans to send poll watchers to eight counties on Election Day to ensure compliance with federal voting rights laws.

The Justice Department regularly sends observers across the country to look for potential voting rights violations during key elections. The agency said monitors would be on the ground in 86 jurisdictions in 27 states. The Texas counties are Atascosa, Bexar, Dallas, Frio, Harris, Hays, Palo Pinto and Waller.

Late Friday evening, Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson told the federal agency that its poll watchers are not among those allowed at polling places in Texas or central locations where ballots are counted under state law. Election day is Tuesday.

A spokeswoman for her office said Nelson can't do anything to change who has access to a polling place and is simply following the law. Texas election law lists who is authorized to be at a polling place and does not include federal poll watchers. Election observers are still allowed outside polling stations.

“Rest assured that Texas has robust processes and procedures in place to ensure eligible voters can participate in a free and fair election,” Nelson wrote to a Justice Department official Friday evening.

The secretary of state's statement came shortly after Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick refuted claims on social media that voting machines in Texas had given Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's votes to Vice President Kamala Harris.

“There was NOT A SINGLE confirmation that it actually happened,” Patrick wrote.

For decades, the Justice Department has deployed poll watchers across the country to monitor operations at polling stations and places where ballots are counted. This was a power granted to the federal government under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which banned discriminatory voting practices and aimed to equalize voting access. After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down parts of the law years ago, the agency must now seek permission from state and local jurisdictions to be present or obtain a court order.

Officials in Florida and Missouri banned federal poll watchers in 2022 — and this year, Arkansas officials told ABC News they wouldn't be allowed there.

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

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the Texas Secretary of State's Office told ABC News this week that state election inspectors would be deployed to “various locations” across Texas.

Xiomara Moore contributed to this story.

Disclosure: The Texas Secretary of State has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. A full list of them can be found here.