THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S Department of Justice will deploy election monitors to five California counties on Election Day, the department announced, in what it describes as an effort to “ensure transparency, ballot security, and compliance with federal law.”
The news comes as voters are already casting ballots on Proposition 50, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal to redraw the state’s congressional districts to favor Democrats. Early in-person voting began over the weekend in many counties.
Federal personnel from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division will be sent to Fresno, Kern, Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties. Harmeet Dhillon, the former vice chair of the California Republican Party and a Republican National Committee chairwoman, leads the division.
It’s unclear whether the federal monitors will be onsite during early in-person voting or just on Nov. 4. The Justice Department had not said whether monitors will be stationed at polling places in addition to county elections offices.
A spokesperson for the department did not respond to an emailed request for comment in time for publication.
The request for election monitors came from the California Republican Party, the Associated Press reports. Chairwoman Corrin Rankin wrote a letter to Dhillon’s office on Oct. 20, according to the AP. A spokesperson for the state party did not respond to multiple requests for comment via email and text.
Election observers are nothing out of the ordinary, and both parties regularly deploy poll watchers to ensure voting sites abide by state and federal election laws.
“If federal oversight gives voters confidence that their ballots will be secure and counted, I fully support it.”
Jessica Millan Patterson, former California Republican Party chairwoman and Prop. 50 opponent
The Justice Department also has a long history of monitoring jurisdictions that have track records of civil rights violations. Last November, leaders in some Republican states denied the Biden administration’s Justice Department personnel entry into some polling sites.
“It’s entirely normal for the California Republican Party to request election integrity resources wherever they may be available,” said Bryan Watkins, a former senior adviser to the state party and its former chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson.
Watkins said the state GOP during his tenure welcomed poll monitors from the House Administration Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee and the Republican National Convention.
“If federal oversight gives voters confidence that their ballots will be secure and counted, I fully support it,” said Millan Patterson in a statement. She now is leading the campaign against Newsom’s Prop. 50.
California Democrats immediately denounced the request as a weaponization of the Justice Department against the state’s voters.
“No amount of election interference by the California Republican Party is going to silence the voices of California voters,” said Rusty Hicks, chair of the California Democratic Party, in a statement. “Sadly, we’ve come to expect it from a so-called party that operates as more of a Trump fan club.”
This story originally appeared in CalMatters.