Overview
- Justice Department officials said personnel will monitor polling sites Nov. 4 in Los Angeles, Orange, Kern, Riverside and Fresno counties in California and in Passaic County, New Jersey, to ensure transparency, ballot security and compliance with federal law.
- The operation will be run by the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division led by Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, with coordination through U.S. attorney’s offices, and the department invited additional monitoring requests.
- State Republican parties in California and New Jersey sought the monitors, citing reported irregularities in past elections and focusing on contests that include California’s Proposition 50 redistricting measure and New Jersey’s open governor’s race.
- New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin called the plan highly inappropriate, and California Democratic leaders criticized it as an intimidation tactic, while some local election officials in California said observers are a routine practice.
- Election experts noted the DOJ did not identify the specific statute it intends to enforce or who will serve as monitors, raising questions about legal authority, qualifications and local consent as early voting and mail ballot processing proceed.