The US 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. The move follows requests from state Republican parties.
The department announced it would monitor polling sites in Passaic County, New Jersey, and five counties in southern and central California: Los Angeles, Orange, Kern, Riverside and Fresno. Attorney General Pam Bondi said the goal was to ensure transparency, ballot security and compliance with federal law.
Leading Democrats in both states condemned the decision. New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin called it 'highly inappropriate', while Rusty Hicks, chair of the California Democratic Party, accused Republicans of election interference. A spokesperson for Governor Gavin Newsom described the deployment as an intimidation tactic intended to suppress the vote.
California will vote on 4 November on a redistricting proposition that could add up to five Democratic seats to its US House delegation. The state is one of at least eight that the department has sued over voter roll information. Local election officials insisted their processes were secure and transparent.
