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The U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) on Friday said it plans to send federal election watchers to California and New Jersey for their closely watched elections next month.
New Jersey, has an open seat for governor as Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, prepares to leave office.
California has a ballot measure aimed at redrawing the state’s congressional map in favor of Democrats to counter states like Texas that has redrawn its map to help Republicans.
“Transparency at the polls translates into faith in the electoral process, and this Department of Justice is committed to upholding the highest standards of election integrity,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement to The Associated Press.
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Fox News Digital has reached out to the DOJ for comment.
Bondi added that the goal of the election observers in Passaic County, New Jersey, as well as Los Angeles, Orange, Kern, Riverside and Fresno counties in California, is to “ensure transparency, ballot security, and compliance with federal law.”
The Republican parties in both states requested federal observers.
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“In recent elections, we have received reports of irregularities in these counties that we fear will undermine either the willingness of voters to participate in the election or their confidence in the announced results of the election,” California GOP Chairwoman Corrin Rankin wrote in a letter to Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, on Monday.
The New Jersey GOP sent a similar letter about Passaic County, which is heavily Latino and once favored Democrats, but voted for President Donald Trump in 2024.
The state GOP alleged a “long and sordid history” of vote-by-mail fraud.
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Democrats in both states have pushed back against the decision though.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office blasted it as an “intimidation tactic.”
“This is not a federal election,” his office wrote on X. “The US DOJ has no business or basis to interfere with this election. This is solely about whether California amends our state constitution. This administration has made no secret of its goal to undermine free and fair elections. Deploying these federal forces appears to be an intimidation tactic meant for one thing: suppress the vote.”
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New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin called the move “highly inappropriate” and said the DOJ “has not even attempted to identify a legitimate basis for its actions.”
Los Angeles County Clerk Dean Logan said election observers are standard practice across the country and that the county, with 5.8 million registered voters, is continuously updating and verifying its voter records.
“Voters can have confidence their ballot is handled securely and counted accurately,” he said.
Local election observers from both parties already exist, and the DOJ often sends federal observers to counties which have a history of voting rights violations.
Last year for the presidential election, Republicans in some states said they wouldn’t allow federal elections observers into certain areas while former President Joe Biden was still in office.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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