Summary
- DOJ
sending federal election observers to California, New Jersey. - Observers
to monitor polling in six counties with large Latino populations. - California
counties: Los Angeles, Orange, Kern, Riverside, Fresno involved.
On Friday, the Justice Department said it will be covering
polling locales in five southern and central California counties Los
Angeles, Orange, Kern, Riverside, and Fresno, and also in Passaic County, New
Jersey.
“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,”
Attorney General Pamela Bondi
said in a statement to The Associated Press.
“To ensure transparency, ballot security, and
compliance with federal law”
is the department’s stated objective.
The Justice Department regularly monitors elections, but
this time it is concentrating on California and New Jersey since on November 4
both states will conduct highly anticipated elections with national
ramifications.
In the lead-up to the 2026 midterm elections, California is
conducting a special election to redesign the state’s congressional map in a
bid to thwart Republican gerrymandering efforts elsewhere, while New Jersey has
an open governor’s seat that has drawn significant investment from both
parties.
Following years of President Donald Trump’s refusal to accept
the 2020 election results, the Justice Department’s attempts are also the most
recent in the Republican Party’s obsession with election integrity.
Democrats worry that similarly baseless claims of fraud
would be used by the next administration to try to win the congressional
elections next year.
Days after the Republican leaders in both states sent
letters to the Justice Department asking for help, the announcement was made.
The move was criticized by some of the states’ top Democrats.
The Justice Department “has not even attempted to
identify a legitimate basis for its actions,” according to New Jersey
Attorney General Matt Platkin, who referred to the action as “highly
inappropriate.”
The letter from the California Republican Party, sent on
Monday and obtained by The Associated Press, asked the Justice Department’s
civil rights head, Harmeet Dhillon, to provide monitors to observe the election
in the five counties.
“In recent elections, we have received reports of
irregularities in these counties that we fear will undermine either the
willingness of voters to participate in the election or their confidence in the
announced results of the election,”
wrote GOP Chairwoman Corrin Rankin.
A redistricting proposal that would drastically alter
California’s congressional boundaries and add up to five more Democratic
members to its delegation to the US House is scheduled for a vote in the state.
According to state Republican leaders, there have been
recent voting problems in each of the counties listed, including voters
receiving duplicate or inaccurate votes. They also criticize the way Orange and
Los Angeles counties keep their voter rolls up to date.
The Justice Department has filed lawsuits against at least
eight states, including California, in an effort to obtain comprehensive voter
roll data. Why the department wants the data has not been stated.
Brandon Richards, a spokesperson for Governor Gavin Newsom,
said the Justice Department has no standing to “interfere” with California’s
election.
He pointed out that November’s ballot contains only a
state-specific initiative and has no federal races.
“Deploying these federal forces appears to be an
intimidation tactic meant for one thing: suppress the vote,”
Richards said
in an email.
On election day, polling stations are usually rather quiet
because the majority of Californians cast their ballots by mail, which are
returned via the postal service, drop boxes, or local voting centers
However, the nation’s most populous state has a reputation
for tallying votes in a manner that can take weeks, if not longer, in an effort
to be accurate and count every vote.
The nation’s last congressional election was held in 2024,
and it wasn’t until early December that Democrat Adam Gray was declared the
victor in his Central Valley district.
In preparation for the state’s governor’s race, they
requested that the Department of Justice send election monitors to
“monitor access to the Board of Elections around the clock” and
“oversee receipt and processing of vote-by-mail ballots” in suburban
Passaic County.
In order to guarantee an accurate vote count in the mainly
Latino county that was formerly a Democratic bastion but switched to President
Donald Trump’s column in last year’s presidential election, the New Jersey
Republican State Committee informed Dhillon that federal involvement was
required.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli’s
chances of defeating Democrat Mikie Sherrill may depend on the county. However,
the letter claimed a “long and sordid history” of vote-by-mail
machinations and referenced prior voter fraud instances in the area.
In order to make sure that federal civil rights rules are
being followed, the Justice Department has a lengthy history of sending
observers to areas with a history of violating voting rights.
Several Republican-led states declared last year that they
would not permit federal monitors to enter polling places on election day, when
President Joe Biden’s administration was still in power.
As part of his persistent, unfounded accusations that
Biden’s 2020 victory was rigged, Trump has been railing against mail voting for
years. Despite the fact that multiple studies have shown no evidence of
widespread fraud in US elections, he claims it is rife with fraud.
Trump promised to outlaw vote-by-mail nationwide earlier
this year, but the US Constitution does not grant him the authority to do so.
According to the Justice Department, Dhillon’s Civil Rights
Division will be in charge of the initiative. It will coordinate the deployment
of staff with US Attorney’s Offices and collaborate closely with state and
local authorities.
Additional requests for surveillance in other jurisdictions
are also being accepted by the department.
The work is usually carried out by department lawyers who
are not allowed to meddle at polling stations, according to David Becker, a
former Justice Department attorney who has worked as an election monitor and
trained them.
What legal authority allows the DOJ to send election
observers?
The legal authority that allows the U.S. Department ofJustice (DOJ) to send election spectators primarily comes from Section 13
of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Under this provision, the Attorney General
can certify political services where civil spectators are assigned to
cover choices to insure compliance with civil voting rights laws.
These spectators help discourage discriminative practices and
ensure translucency at the pates.
Also, the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division uses labor force
to cover polling places to assess adherence to voting rights laws, including
the Help America Vote Act. Although the 2013 Supreme Court decision in Shelby
County v.
Holder limited the use of some Voting Rights Act, the DOJ
continues to shoot spectators and observers in cooperation with
state and original officers, frequently in response to requests
from countries or local parties.
