LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Department of Justice is preparing to send federal election observers to California and New Jersey next month, targeting two Democratic states holding off-year elections following requests from state Republican parties.
The DOJ announced Friday that it is planning to monitor polling sites in Passaic County, New Jersey, and five counties in southern and central California: Los Angeles, Orange, Kern, Riverside and Fresno. The goal, according to the DOJ, is “to ensure transparency, ballot security, and compliance with federal law."
“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.
Election monitoring is a routine function of the Justice Department, but the focus on California and New Jersey comes as both states are set to hold closely-watched elections with national consequences on Nov. 4. New Jersey has an and California is holding a special election aimed at to counter Republican gerrymandering efforts elsewhere ahead of the 2026 midterms.
The DOJ's efforts are the latest salvo in the GOP’s preoccupation with election integrity after President spent years of the 2020 election and falsely as rife with fraud. Democrats fear the new administration will attempt to gain an upper hand in next year’s midterms with similarly unfounded allegations of fraud.
The announcement comes days after the Republican parties in both states wrote letters to the DOJ requesting their assistance. Some leading Democrats in the states blasted the decision.
New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin called the move “highly inappropriate†and said the DOJ “has not even attempted to identify a legitimate basis for its actions.â€
California's House districts at stake
The letter from the California GOP, sent Monday and obtained by the AP, asked Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the DOJ's Civil Rights Division, 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.
The state is set to vote Nov. 4 on a redistricting proposition that would to add as many as five additional Democratic seats to its U.S. House delegation.
California is one of at least the Justice Department has sued as part of a wide-ranging request for involving at least half the states. The department has not said why it wants the data.
Brandon Richards, a spokesman for Gov. Gavin Newsom, said the DOJ has no standing to “interfere†with California's election because the 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," he said in an email.
But Orange County Registrar of Voters Bob Page said it’s common to have local, state, federal and even international observers and welcomes anyone who wants to watch the county's operations.
Los Angeles County Clerk Dean Logan said election observers are standard practice across the country and that the county, with 5.8 million registered voters, is continuously updating and verifying its voter records.
"Voters can have confidence their ballot is handled securely and counted accurately," he said.
Most Californians vote using mail ballots returned through the postal service, drop boxes or at local voting centers. But in pursuit of accuracy and counting every vote, the nation’s most populous state has gained a reputation for tallies that can drag on for weeks — and sometimes longer.
In 2024, it took until early December to declare Democrat Adam Gray the in his Central Valley district, the final congressional race to be decided in the nation last year.
Passaic County the target in New Jersey
California's request echoed a similar asking the DOJ to dispatch election monitors to “oversee the receipt and processing of vote-by-mail ballots†and “monitor access to the Board of Elections around the clock" in suburban Passaic County ahead of the state’s governor's race.
The New Jersey Republican State Committee told Dhillon that federal intervention was necessary to ensure an accurate vote count in the that was , but shifted to President column in last year's presidential race.
The county could be critical to GOP gubernatorial nominee Jack Ciattarelli’s hopes against Democrat Mikie Sherrill.
The letter, which cited previous voter fraud cases in the county and alleged a “long and sordid history†of vote-by-mail shenanigans, came after Republicans said Democratic members of the Passaic County Board of Elections voted against implementing additional security measures, including using cameras in ballot storage areas.
In 2020, a judge for a city council seat in Paterson — the largest city in Passaic County — after the apparent winner and others were charged with voter fraud.
“The reason that we have concerns about this is because there’s been a significant history of fraud," said Kate Gibbs, executive director of the NJGOP, which is also weighing whether to request additional DOJ monitoring in a number of other counties.
Platkin said the state is committed to ensuring its elections are fair and secure. With the DOJ's announcement, he said the attorney general's office is "considering all of our options to prevent any effort to intimidate voters or interfere with our elections.â€
Election observers are nothing new
Local election offices and polling places around the country already have observers from both political parties to ensure rules are followed. The DOJ also has a long history of sending observers to jurisdictions that have histories of voting rights violations to ensure compliance with federal civil rights laws.
Trump has for years railed against mail voting as part of his repeated that former President in 2020 was rigged. He alleges it is riddled with fraud, even though numerous studies have found no evidence of widespread fraud in U.S. elections.
Earlier this year, to ban vote-by-mail across the country, something he has under the U.S. Constitution.
The DOJ’s effort will be overseen by Dhillon’s Civil Rights Division, which will deploy personnel in coordination with U.S. attorney’s offices and work closely with state and local officials, the department said.
The department also is soliciting further requests for monitoring in other jurisdictions.
David Becker, a former DOJ attorney who has served as an election monitor and trained them, said the only federal laws the department has the jurisdiction to enforce in state elections are ones that prevent discrimination against racial minorities.
“It’s a very high bar to justify Washington’s intervention into state-only elections,†said Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Integrity & Research.
Still, Becker said that if monitors obey rules about not interacting with voters, poll workers or ballot counting, “I don’t think this is going to make any difference for voters.â€
___
Colvin reported from New York. Associated Press writers Nicholas Riccardi in Denver and Mike Catalini in Trenton, New Jersey, contributed to this report.
