TL/DR –
The Department of Justice will send federal election observers to California and New Jersey following requests from state Republican parties. The monitors will be deployed in Passaic County, New Jersey, and five counties in California with the goal of ensuring transparency, ballot security, and compliance with federal law. The move comes ahead of closely-watched elections in both states, and amidst fears by Democrats that the new administration will attempt to unfairly influence next year’s midterms.
The Department of Justice (DoJ) plans to monitor upcoming elections in California and New Jersey, in response to requests from state Republican parties.
The DoJ intends to oversee polling sites in Passaic county, New Jersey and five counties in California: Los Angeles, Orange, Kern, Riverside, and Fresno. The aim is to enforce “transparency, ballot security, and compliance with federal law.”
Attorney general Pam Bondi said this move is in line with the DoJ’s commitment to uphold election integrity standards.
The decision comes during a time when both states are set to hold crucial elections with national implications on 4 November. New Jersey’s upcoming governor race and California’s special election directed at redrawing the state’s congressional map have attracted significant attention.
This move by the DoJ aligns with the Republican party’s ongoing focus on election integrity, fuelled by Donald Trump’s refusal to accept the 2020 election results and his false claims regarding mail-in voting fraud.
This comes after both state Republican parties requested DoJ assistance, a decision denounced by some leading Democrats.
New Jersey attorney general Matt Platkin and Rusty Hicks, chair of the California Democratic party, criticized this move, with Hicks accusing of potential election interference by the California Republican party.
The Republican parties allege recent voting issues in these counties and have concerns with how Los Angeles and Orange counties maintain their voter rolls.
This comes as California is one of eight states sued by the department as part of a broad request for detailed voter roll information from several states. The reason for this data request remains unclear.
Brandon Richards, a spokesman for Governor Gavin Newsom, described the DoJ’s actions as an intimidation tactic aimed at vote suppression.
However, election officials in Orange and Los Angeles counties assured voters of the reliability of their ballot handling and counting processes.
Both state’s Republican parties requested the DoJ to oversee the process of mail-in voting, with concerns over potential inaccuracies in the heavily Latino Passaic county, which shifted towards Trump in the last presidential race.
David Becker, a former DoJ attorney and trained election monitor expressed concerns over potential chaos if monitors were sent without a clear legal rationale to areas where local officials do not want them.
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