Justice Department to monitor polls in some blue state counties

The Justice Department announced Friday that it will monitor polls in six predominantly Latino counties in New Jersey and California during the Nov. 4 elections.

The announcement comes as concerns grow about how the Trump administration could try to interfere and undermine the US elections. President Donald Trump has repeatedly cast doubt on the election results in every election cycle since he first ran for president, including attempting to steal the 2020 election. In March, Trump issued an executive order that sought to alter election laws to require proof of citizenship at the polls, but this was blocked by a court because the president has no unilateral role in setting election laws.

Amid gubernatorial and state legislative elections in New Jersey and a ballot initiative election in California that would allow the legislature to redraw the state’s congressional maps, DOJ observers will appear at polling places in Passaic County, New Jersey, and Los Angeles, Fresno, Riverside, Kern and Orange counties in California.

Passaic County has the highest percentage of Latino population in New Jersey at almost 43%. Both Fresno and Kern are majority-Latino counties, while Los Angeles, Riverside and Orange are among the California counties with the largest Latino populations, each exceeding one million. Los Angeles County has a Latino population of 4.8 million. The majority of the population in all of these counties, except Los Angeles and Orange, voted for Trump in 2024.

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The New Jersey state Republican Party requested monitors in Passaic County after the county board of elections rejected Republican requests for the use of video cameras and record books in vote-by-mail storage and counting rooms.

“The Trump Department of Justice’s announcement that it will send federal ‘poll observers’ to Passaic County is highly inappropriate, and the Department of Justice has not even attempted to identify a legitimate basis for its actions,” New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin (D) said in a statement.

“We welcome transparency in our elections, but the presence of the US Department of Justice is completely unnecessary,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s press office said in an email. “California elections are secure, period.”

The Justice Department says its monitoring through its Civil Rights Division is intended to “ensure transparency, ballot security, and compliance with federal law.” the civiliansl The Division of Rights routinely monitors polls to ensure that states are not suppressing minority voters and remain in compliance with the Voting Rights Act. However, the Trump administration openly opposes the Voting Rights Act, and the Civil Rights Division has reversed the civil rights law’s original intent to make alleged discrimination against whites its priority.

“The Department of Justice will do whatever is necessary to protect the votes of eligible American citizens, ensuring our elections are safe and secure,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Civil Rights Division said in a statement. “Transparent electoral processes and election monitoring are critical tools to safeguard our elections and ensure public confidence in the integrity of our elections.”

The key word in this statement is “eligible.” The Trump administration and Republican officials across the country have falsely claimed that noncitizen voting is widespread in U.S. elections. That’s false. But this falsehood is the justification behind Trump’s push to require proof of citizenship to vote and numerous false legal complaints filed in the run-up to the 2024 election.

It remains to be seen what federal observers might be looking for.