California to Monitor Trump's DOJ Poll Watchers Amid Concerns of Voter Intimidation, Election Interference

[highplainsdem]

https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/california-to-monitor-trumps-doj-poll-watchers-amid-concerns-of-voter-intimidation-and-election-interference/

California is preparing to send its own state observers to watch over federal monitors from President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice. The move underscores a growing standoff between state election officials and a federal government many voting rights advocates say is weaponizing oversight to interfere in elections.

Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) said Monday that California will deploy state observers to polling locations in five counties — Los Angeles, Orange, Kern, Riverside and Fresno — the same places the DOJ said it would send federal “election monitors.”

“They’re not going to be allowed to interfere in ways that the law prohibits,” Bonta told reporters during a virtual news conference. “We cannot be naive. The Republican Party asked for the U.S. DOJ to come in.”

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To California officials, the federal move looks less like safeguarding rights and more like interference. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), who championed the state’s redistricting ballot measure — Proposition 50 — called the DOJ deployment an act of voter intimidation.

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California is preparing to send its own state observers to watch over federal monitors from President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice. The move underscores a growing standoff between state election officials and a federal government many voting rights advocates say is weaponizing oversight.

— Marc Elias (@marcelias.bsky.social) 2025-10-27T23:54:29.290Z