{"id":31955,"date":"2025-10-31T14:49:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T14:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/31955\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T14:49:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T14:49:16","slug":"fresno-will-deploy-poll-observers-in-prop-50-election-on-top-of-federal-monitors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/31955\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresno will deploy poll observers in Prop. 50 election on top of federal monitors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The City of Fresno will deploy election observers to all city polling sites during Tuesday\u2019s special election to decide Prop. 50,<\/a> on top of federal and state monitors, city officials announced Thursday.<\/p>\n

The decision comes less than a week after the U.S. Department of Justice said it will send monitors to polling sites in five California counties \u2014 including Fresno \u2014 in the Nov. 4 election. The sole question on the ballot is Prop. 50, Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s proposal to temporarily redraw the state\u2019s map of congressional districts to favor Democratic candidates in response to a similar gerrymandering effort in Texas favoring Republicans.<\/p>\n

Councilmember Nelson Esparza said the city\u2019s decision to send its own observers is in response to community concerns following the DOJ\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot to say that federal poll watchers are unprecedented, but it\u2019s not a very common occurrence,\u201d Esparza said. \u201cI think in this national environment, that announcement by the federal government has created a confusion and created anxiety. So we, as a city, are saying we will be there, ensuring to our ability that everyone has an easy time voting.\u201d<\/p>\n

City observers will be personnel from the City Attorney\u2019s Office. Staff will be present to ensure there is no voter interference and that all votes are counted, City Attorney Andrew Janz said.<\/p>\n

California Attorney General Rob Bonta indicated earlier this week that he will also send election monitors to Fresno, meaning federal, state and city observers will be at the polls on Tuesday. Newsom called the Trump administration\u2019s decision to send election monitors an \u201cintimidation tactic\u201d meant to suppress support for Prop. 50.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all watching to ensure we preserve constitutional rights,\u201d Council President Mike Karbassi said.<\/p>\n

Monitors from the Justice Department\u2019s Civil Rights Division will be sent to Fresno, Kern, Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties on Election Day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Department regularly deploys its staff to monitor for compliance with federal civil rights laws in elections in communities across the country,\u201d the Department of Justice said in its announcement last Friday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It has been eight years since the DOJ conducted election observations in Fresno County. A request for federal monitors ahead of the Nov. 4 election came from the California Republican Party, the Associated Press reported.<\/p>\n

City officials said the decision to add local monitors was not a partisan effort, but an effort to ensure transparency.<\/p>\n

There will not be any changes in the voting process or the way Fresno County handles elections with DOJ election monitors present, Fresno County Clerk\/Registrar of Voters James Kus told The Bee.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do everything by the law and in a fashion where any observer can see that process and understand it,\u201d Kus said. \u201cAnd so as far as we\u2019re concerned, the US Department of Justice is just another group coming in to see how we do things right.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were multiple observers from local and state organizations in polling locations for Fresno County\u2019s early in-person voting on Saturday and Sunday, Kus said, but he does not believe anyone from the DOJ was present.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are rules about observation, and it really is observation,\u201d Kus said. \u201cYou cannot interfere with the process, but we work to our very best ability for any observer, whether it be from an organization or just a citizen interested in seeing what\u2019s going on, to take a look at it and see that process.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The City of Fresno will deploy election observers to all city polling sites during Tuesday\u2019s special election to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31956,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[20211,1053,3847,23266,23267,112,622,114,113,457,576],"class_list":["post-31955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-california-attorney-general-rob-bonta","tag-city-of-fresno","tag-councilmember-nelson-esparza","tag-election-observers","tag-federal-monitors","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-county","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-u-s-department-of-justice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31955","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=31955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}