The Division of Justice is getting ready to ship federal election observers to California and New Jersey subsequent month, focusing on two Democratic states holding off-year elections following requests from state Republican events.
The division introduced Friday that it’s planning to watch polling websites in Passaic County, New Jersey, and 5 counties in southern and central California: Los Angeles, Orange, Kern, Riverside and Fresno. The purpose, in response to the DOJ, is “to make sure transparency, poll safety, and compliance with federal legislation.”
“Transparency on the polls interprets into religion within the electoral course of, and this Division of Justice is dedicated to upholding the very best requirements of election integrity,” Lawyer Normal Pam Bondi mentioned in an announcement.
Election monitoring is a routine operate of the Justice Division, however the give attention to California and New Jersey comes as each states are set to carry intently watched elections with nationwide penalties on Nov. 4. New Jersey has an open seat for governor that has attracted main spending by each events and California is holding a particular election aimed toward redrawing the state’s congressional map to counter Republican gerrymandering efforts elsewhere forward of the 2026 midterms.
The DOJ’s efforts are additionally the most recent salvo within the GOP’s preoccupation with election integrity after President Trump spent years refusing to just accept the outcomes of the 2020 election and falsely railing towards mail-in voting as rife with fraud. Democrats worry the brand new administration will try to realize an higher hand in subsequent yr’s midterms with equally unfounded allegations of fraud.
The announcement comes days after the Republican events in each states wrote letters to the Justice Division requesting their help. Some main Democrats within the states blasted the choice.
New Jersey Lawyer Normal Matt Platkin known as the transfer “extremely inappropriate” and mentioned the division “has not even tried to determine a reliable foundation for its actions.”
Rusty Hicks, chair of the California Democratic Social gathering, mentioned in an announcement that “No quantity of election interference by the California Republican Social gathering goes to silence the voices of California voters.”
The letter from the California GOP, despatched Monday and obtained by the Related Press, requested Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, to offer screens to watch the election within the 5 counties.
“In latest elections, we’ve acquired experiences of irregularities in these counties that we worry will undermine both the willingness of voters to take part within the election or their confidence within the introduced outcomes of the election,” wrote GOP Chairwoman Corrin Rankin.
The state is about to vote Nov. 4 on a redistricting proposition that may dramatically redraw California’s congressional traces so as to add as many as 5 extra Democratic seats to its U.S. Home delegation.
Every of the counties named, they alleged, has skilled latest voting points, similar to sending incorrect or duplicate ballots to voters. Additionally they take subject with how Los Angeles and Orange counties preserve their voter rolls.
California is one among at the very least eight states the Justice Division has sued as a part of a wide-ranging request for detailed voter roll data involving at the very least half the states. The division has not mentioned why it needs the info.
Election integrity efforts have been a spotlight of Dhillon’s California legislation apply earlier than she joined the Justice Division. Her apply sued over the state’s election legal guidelines previously, together with a 2020 lawsuit on behalf of the California Republican Social gathering difficult poll assortment efforts amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Brandon Richards, a spokesman for Gov. Gavin Newsom, mentioned the DOJ has no standing to “intrude” with California’s election as a result of the poll incorporates solely a state-specific initiative and has no federal races.
“Deploying these federal forces seems to be an intimidation tactic meant for one factor: suppress the vote,” he mentioned in an electronic mail.
Orange County Registrar of Voters Bob Web page mentioned he welcomes anybody who needs to observe the county’s election operations and mentioned it’s normal to have native, state, federal and even worldwide observers. He described Orange County’s elections as “accessible, correct, truthful, safe, and clear.”
Los Angeles County Clerk Dean Logan mentioned election observers are commonplace apply throughout the nation and that the county, with 5.8 million registered voters, is constantly updating and verifying its voter information.
“Voters can have faith their poll is dealt with securely and counted precisely,” he mentioned.
Most Californians vote utilizing mail ballots returned by the postal service, drop containers or at native voting facilities, which usually leaves polling locations comparatively quiet on Election Day. However in pursuit of accuracy and counting each vote, the nation’s most populous state has gained a fame for tallies that may drag on for weeks — and generally longer.
In 2024, it took till early December to declare Democrat Adam Grey the winner in his Central Valley district, the ultimate congressional race to be determined within the nation final yr.
California’s request echoed an analogous letter despatched by New Jersey Republicans asking the DOJ to dispatch election screens to “oversee the receipt and processing of vote-by-mail ballots” and “monitor entry to the Board of Elections across the clock” in suburban Passaic County forward of the state’s governor’s race.
The New Jersey Republican State Committee advised Dhillon that federal intervention was essential to make sure an correct vote depend within the closely Latino county that was as soon as a Democratic stronghold, however shifted to Mr. Trump’s column in final yr’s presidential race.
The county could possibly be vital to GOP gubernatorial nominee Jack Ciattarelli’s hopes towards Democrat Mikie Sherrill. However the letter cited earlier voter fraud circumstances within the county and alleged a “lengthy and sordid historical past” of vote-by-mail shenanigans.
In 2020, a decide ordered a brand new election for a metropolis council seat in Paterson — the biggest metropolis in Passaic County — after the obvious winner and others have been charged with voter fraud.
Platkin mentioned the state is dedicated to making sure its elections are truthful and safe. With the DOJ’s announcement, he mentioned the legal professional normal’s workplace is “contemplating all of our choices to forestall any effort to intimidate voters or intrude with our elections.”
Native election workplaces and polling locations across the nation have already got observers from each political events to make sure guidelines are adopted. The DOJ additionally has a protracted historical past of sending observers to jurisdictions which have histories of voting rights violations to make sure compliance with federal civil rights legal guidelines.
Final yr, when the Biden administration was nonetheless in energy, some Republican-led states mentioned they might not enable federal screens to entry voting areas on Election Day.
Mr. Trump has for years railed towards mail voting as a part of his repeated false claims that former President Joe Biden’s victory in 2020 was rigged. He alleges it’s riddled with fraud, though quite a few research have discovered no proof of widespread fraud in U.S. elections.
Earlier this yr, Mr. Trump pledged to ban vote-by-mail throughout the nation, one thing he has no energy to do below the U.S. Structure.
The DOJ’s effort will likely be overseen by Dhillon’s Civil Rights Division, which is able to deploy personnel in coordination with U.S. legal professional’s workplaces and work intently with state and native officers, the division mentioned. The division can be soliciting additional requests for monitoring in different jurisdictions.
David Becker, a CBS Information election legislation skilled and political contributor who has served as an election monitor and skilled them, mentioned the work is usually achieved by division attorneys who’re prohibited from interfering at polling locations.
However Becker, the manager director of the Middle for Election Integrity & Analysis, mentioned native jurisdictions usually conform to the screens’ presence.
If the administration tried to ship screens and not using a clear authorized rationale to a spot the place native officers did not need them, “That might lead to chaos,” he mentioned.
