California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s rebuke of the Justice Department’s move to monitor the November election in his state is getting strong pushback, including from a DOJ official who noted the move is not out of the ordinary.
“Donald Trump’s puppet DOJ has no business screwing around with next month’s election,” Newsom posted on Friday in response to news the DOJ plans to send federal election watchers to California and New Jersey for their closely watched elections next month.
“Sending the feds into California polling places is a deliberate attempt to scare off voters and undermine a fair election. We will not back down. Californians decide our future — no one else.”
Many on social media, including DOJ Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon, quickly pointed out that the Justice Department has a long history of sending election monitoring resources to areas that have a history of issues in order to ensure election laws are being followed.
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“Lol calm down bro,” Dhillon posted on X. “The @TheJusticeDept under Democrat administrations has sent in federal election observers for decades, and not once did we hear that this was voter intimidation from states such as California. Do you really want to go there? Isn’t transparency a good thing?”
Dr. Houman Hemmati posted on X, “Hey @GavinNewsom WHY would any legitimate voter be “scared off” by having federal election observers? Most people think legitimate voters would be more likely to vote because they’d trust the process.
“But clearly you’re afraid of something. I wonder what that is…”
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a Republican candidate for governor in California to replace the term-limited Newsom, wrote on X, “Gavin sure seems worried about people seeing how he’s handling elections.”
The Republican parties in both California and New Jersey requested the federal observers as California votes on a ballot measure aimed at redrawing the state’s congressional map in favor of Democrats to counter states like Texas that have redrawn its map favoring Republicans and New Jersey votes in a highly watched gubernatorial election.
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The Department of Justice sent election monitors to California twice during the Biden administration, during the 2022 general election and the 2024 general election.
“This is not a federal election,” Newsom’s press office posted 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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The Biden Justice Department sent election resources to several non-federal elections as well, including Alaska municipal elections in October 2023, a New Jersey off-year general election in 2023, and a Mississippi off-year general in 2023.
Fox News Digital reached out to Newsom’s office for comment.
“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 Dhillon on Monday.
The New Jersey GOP sent a similar letter about Passaic County, which is heavily Latino and once favored Democrats, but voted Trump in 2024.
The state GOP alleged a “long and sordid history” of vote-by-mail fraud.
Democrats in both states have pushed back against the decision.
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.
During the 2024 election, multiple Republican-led states pushed back on the Biden administration’s efforts to send federal resources to monitor elections, arguing the state measures in place were satisfactory.
Election monitors are lawyers who work for the Justice Department, including in the civil rights division and U.S. attorney’s offices across the country. They are not law enforcement officers or federal agents.
For decades, the Justice Department’s civil rights division has sent attorneys and staff members to monitor polling places across the country in both federal and non-federal elections. The monitors are tasked with ensuring compliance with federal voting rights laws.
The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division enforces a number of statutes protecting the right to vote. That includes the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits intimidation and threats against those who are casting ballots or counting votes. And it includes the Americans with Disabilities Act, which mandates that election officials ensure people with disabilities have the full and equal opportunity to vote.
Fox News Digital’s Brie Stimson and The Associated Press contributed to this report
Gavin Newsom faces backlash after criticizing DOJ’s plan to send federal election monitors to California, with officials noting the practice is standard.