欧博abgJustice Department says it will monitor Calif
The U.S. Department of Justice will monitor polling sites in five California counties as voters decide on Proposition 50 on Nov. 4, it said Friday, after being asked to do so by state GOP officials.
Monitoring, which is routinely conducted by the Justice Department, will occur across Southern California and in the Central Valley, in Fresno, Kern, Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties, the Justice Department said.
A spokesman for Gov. Gavin Newsom called the move an “intimidation tactic” aimed at suppressing support for Proposition 50, and inappropriate federal interference in a state election.
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Proposition 50 — one of November’s most hotly-watched electoral issues, with national political implications — asks California voters whether the state should amend its Constitution to redraw its congressional districts to better favor Democrats. It is a response to President Trump’s pressure campaign on Texas and other red states to redraw their lines in favor of Republicans, and is considered a must-pass measure if Democrats hope to regain control of the House in next year’s midterms.
The Justice Department said its monitors would work to “ensure transparency, ballot security, and compliance with federal law,” including the Voting Rights Act, National Voter Registration Act, Help America Vote Act, Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, and the Civil Rights Act.
“Transparency at the polls translates into faith in the electoral process, and this Department of Justice is committed to upholding the highest standards of election integrity,” Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi said. “We will commit the resources necessary to ensure the American people get the fair, free, and transparent elections they deserve.”
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“Our democracy depends on free and fair elections,” said acting U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in the L.A. region, who will be helping to coordinate the monitoring effort. “We will work tirelessly to uphold and protect the integrity of the election process.”
Peter O’Neill casts his ballot in the Super Tuesday primary at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles on March 5, 2024.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Brandon Richards, Newsom’s spokesman, said the Justice Department had “no business or basis” for the move, given that the November election is not a federal one and “solely about whether California amends our state Constitution.”
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“This administration has made no secret of its goal to undermine free and fair elections,” Richards said. “Deploying these federal forces appears to be an intimidation tactic meant for one thing: suppress the vote.”
The impact of positioning federal elections monitors at polling places may be limited, because the vast majority of Californians vote by mail. In the last statewide special election — a failed effort to recall Newsom in 2021 — more than 91% of voters submitted their ballots by mail. In the 2024 election, more than 80% of voters did so.
Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) said that as a former California secretary of state, he knows that “California elections are safe and secure and that election irregularities remain exceedingly rare,” and questioned the Trump administration’s motives for sending monitors.
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“Historically, we’ve counted on the U.S. Department of Justice to protect voting rights and help ensure that elections run smoothly, but under the Trump administration that’s changed,” Padilla said in a statement to The Times. “Donald Trump has weaponized the DOJ to attack public confidence in our elections and take steps to block access to the ballot. Any move by DOJ observers that makes it harder for eligible citizens to exercise their right to vote would cross a dangerous line.”
Early in-person voting starts Saturday in 29 California counties, including several counties where federal election monitors are planned.
California officials, including Secretary of State Shirley Weber and California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, have promised safe and fair elections and said their teams will also be out in the field enforcing California’s election laws as voters weigh in on Prop. 50.
California’s Constitution currently puts redistricting decisions in the hands of an independent Citizens Redistricting Commission. Proposition 50 would require the temporary use of new maps placed on the ballot by the Democratic-led California Legislature, but return authority to draw districts to the commission in 2031.
Newsom and other backers of the measure have said they generally support independent redistricting processes and will push for nonpartisan commissions nationwide, but that Democrats must fight back against Trump’s current efforts to have Republican states reconfigure their congressional districts to ensure the GOP retains control of Congress after the 2026 election.
Republicans in the state — including former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger — have said abandoning the state’s popular nonpartisan commission is the wrong thing to do, regardless of what red states are doing, and unfair to millions of conservative voters in the state.
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The Justice Department also announced monitors will be stationed in Passaic County, N.J. That state is holding a consequential gubernatorial election.
While federal monitoring is routine, particularly in federal elections, it has been viewed with heightened skepticism from both parties in recent years. When the Justice Department under President Biden announced monitoring in 86 jurisdictions across 27 states during last November’s presidential election, some Republican-led states balked and sought to block the effort.
Democrats have been highly skeptical of the Trump administration’s plans for monitoring elections, in part because of Trump’s relentless denial of past election losses — including his own to Biden in 2020 — and his appointment of fellow election deniers to high-ranking positions in his administration, including in the Justice Department.
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The state is currently battling the Trump administration in court over the administration’s efforts to implement stricter voting regulations, including new voter identification requirements and limits on mail-in ballots, and its demands for state voter rolls and other elections data.
Corrin Rankin, chair of the California Republican Party, had specifically asked the Justice Department to send monitors to the five counties in a letter to the agency on Monday.
Rankin wrote that the party had “received reports of irregularities” in each of the counties during recent elections, which they feared could “undermine either the willingness of voters to participate in the election or their confidence in the announced results of the election” this November.
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Rankin cited past examples of incorrect ballots in Kern County, duplicate ballots in Riverside County, shifting ballot cure deadlines in Fresno County, concerns with “voter list maintenance practices” in Orange County and “questions about the accuracy of voter rolls” in Los Angeles County.
Rankin called Proposition 50 a “politically charged question,” and said it was “imperative to have robust voter participation and public confidence in the results, regardless of the outcome.”
Matt Shupe, a spokesperson for the California GOP, declined to comment on the letter Friday.
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David Becker, executive director of the nonpartisan and nonprofit Center for Election Innovation and Research and an attorney who worked in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said the issues cited in the GOP letter don’t appear to fall under federal jurisdiction.
“If the California GOP believes that there is a violation of state law with regard to state elections, the proper party to address those complaints to is the California attorney general’s office and California secretary of state,” Becker said.
Becker questioned whether the Justice Department had adequately explained why election monitors are needed in California. At the same time, during his time at the agency — from 1998 to 2005 — monitors were sent in coordination with local jurisdictions and “there was good communication” between parties.
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Elections officials in L.A. County didn’t know about the Justice Department’s plans and found out when a reporter contacted them, said registrar-recorder/county clerk spokesperson Michael Sanchez.
“It’s common to send monitors to elections to enforce federal law, even occasionally in non-federal elections,” said Becker. At the same time, “it’s also true that the announcement from the DOJ raises a lot of questions.”
Dean Logan, head of the L.A. County registrar-recorder/county clerk’s office, said in a statement Friday that federal election monitors are welcome to view election activities and that the state has “clear laws and guidelines that support observation and prohibit election interference.”
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“The presence of election observers is not unusual and is a standard practice across the country,” Logan said.
Logan didn’t directly address the California GOP’s specific statements about L.A. County, but said that the county regularly updates and verifies voter records in coordination with state and federal agencies and protects the integrity of the election process.
“Voters can have confidence their ballot is handled securely and counted accurately,” he said.