The U.S. Department of Justice plans to monitor polling sites in five California counties \u2014 including Los Angeles and Orange \u2014 during the Nov. 4 election in which voters will decide whether to approve a temporary statewide redistricting aimed at adding more Democrat representation in Congress.<\/p>\n
Monitors will also be stationed in Riverside, Fresno and Kern counties. The DOJ will also monitor polling places in Passaic County, New Jersey.<\/p>\n
\u201cTransparency 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,\u201d U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement. \u201cWe will commit the resources necessary to ensure the American people get the fair, free, and transparent elections they deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n
DOJ officials said the monitoring effort is designed \u201cto ensure transparency, ballot security and compliance with federal law.\u201d<\/p>\n
The announcement came days after the California Republican Party requested that polling places be monitored in select counties due to \u201creports of irregularities\u201d in recent elections.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur democracy depends on free and fair elections,\u201d Acting U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles Bill Essayli said in a statement. \u201cWe will work tirelessly to uphold and protect the integrity of the election process.\u201d<\/p>\n
California Secretary of State Shirley Weber issued a statement saying the DOJ had not provided \u201cany justification\u201d for the need to deploy monitors \u201cin what is a nonfederal special election.\u201d She insisted state elections are secure and transparent, and said the state will ensure voters can cast their ballots \u201cwithout intimidation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will not permit tactics masquerading as oversight to erode voter confidence or intimidate Californians,\u201d Weber said. \u201cOur voters have earned the right to cast their ballots free from surveillance or interference \u2014 from anyone. In California, election integrity is not a talking point; it\u2019s a practice built on decades of professionalism and public trust. We intend to keep it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Nov. 4 election will decide the politically charged Proposition 50, which would temporarily redraw California\u2019s congressional district maps in hopes of increasing Democrat representation. The proposal, spearheaded by Gov. Gavin Newsom, was launched in an effort to counter redistricting efforts in Texas that added five more Republican-leaning districts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The U.S. Department of Justice plans to monitor polling sites in five California counties \u2014 including Los Angeles…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,10681,16213,17494,171,17528,17529],"class_list":["post-22023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-counties","tag-feds","tag-monitor","tag-orange","tag-places","tag-polling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}