{"id":38886,"date":"2025-11-05T08:14:24","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T08:14:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/38886\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T08:14:24","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T08:14:24","slug":"voters-report-seeing-election-watchers-at-fresno-poll-centers-what-did-they-do-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/38886\/","title":{"rendered":"Voters report seeing election watchers at Fresno poll centers. What did they do?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Department of Justice deployed election monitors at several polling locations in Fresno County, though they were not apparent as live voting on Prop. 50<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It did not stop Fresno resident Beverly Bryant from heading to the polls.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am going to exercise my right to vote,\u201d she told The Fresno Bee. \u201cI vote to guarantee my right to complain.\u201d<\/p>\n

James Kus, the Fresno County Clerk\/Registrar of Voters, told The Fresno Bee that as of 2 p.m. on Election Day, in-person votes were just shy of 7,500, and as of Monday, Nov. 3, election officials had already received over 130,000 ballots. These numbers are well within the range of any primary election, he said.<\/p>\n

Bryant did notice a few observers at the Fresno County Clerk\u2019s Office while she cast her vote, but it was unclear which department they were from, she said.<\/p>\n

Both the City of Fresno and the California Attorney\u2019s office indicated their departments would also send election monitors to Fresno on top of the DOJ, meaning federal, state and city observers are at the polls.<\/p>\n

Proposition 50 statewide results<\/p>\n

Should California authorize temporary changes to congressional district maps in response to Texas\u2019 partisan redistricting?<\/p>\n

\"https:\/\/img.particlenews.com\/image.php?url=3nPFM5_16HbXXbx00\"Election coordinator Arthur Gonzales, left, helps direct Calista Font at the Betty Rodriguez Public Library voting center Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025 in Fresno. Font said voting in person made her feel as if she was a real part of voting for the state. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA\/ezamora@fresnobee.com <\/p>\n

Voters at several locations across the city reported seeing monitors on Tuesday morning, and all said they had stayed out of the way, simply observing the process, but with no specific department identification.<\/p>\n

Kus knew of only two federal observers around the county\u2019s polling sites, saying far more observers from the state level or state advocacy organizations have been present.<\/p>\n

DOJ officials contacted Kus last Friday, asking for suggestions on what polling sites to send their observers to. Kus told them that Woodward Park was likely to be the busiest location, and that would be a good place for them to observe, he said.<\/p>\n

Prop. 50 would temporarily change the congressional voting map in California, splitting Fresno County into six districts. That\u2019s two more than Fresno County had before the special election.<\/p>\n

Prop. 50 started as an answer to changes in the Texas Legislature, which approved a new districting map that added Republican seats. Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s proposal in California was meant to add Democratic seats, an attempt to neutralize the effort in Texas.<\/p>\n

The proposal, if passed, would use a new redistricted map in California for elections for the remainder of the decade. Maps are typically redrawn every 10 years following the U.S. Census.<\/p>\n

The proposed changes would add a fourth district to the city of Fresno and split the single Clovis district into three.<\/p>\n

Eligible California voters have until 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 4, to turn in their ballots.<\/p>\n

\"https:\/\/img.particlenews.com\/image.php?url=35JHR0_16HbXXbx00\"Voters file into and leave the Betty Rodriguez Public Library voting center Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025 in Fresno. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA\/ezamora@fresnobee.com Madera County<\/p>\n

In Madera County, 27,800 ballots cast had been verified as of the end of Monday, said Rebecca Martinez, the county\u2019s registrar of voters. That\u2019s about one-third of the 82,264 registered voters in Madera County for this election.<\/p>\n

While neighboring Fresno County expected election observers from the Department of Homeland Security, Martinez said she has not been notified of any organized effort by the federal government to monitor the election in Madera County. But she said all election offices typically receive observers, though they are usually local people.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, I believe that everything is going smoothly,\u201d Martinez told The Fresno Bee. \u201cI\u2019ve had no reports of incidents or any of that kind of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"https:\/\/img.particlenews.com\/image.php?url=4SCYos_16HbXXbx00\"A Prop. 50 political message is seen as cars drive past the voting station outside the Fresno County Elections office on Kern Street Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025 in Fresno. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA\/ezamora@fresnobee.com \"https:\/\/img.particlenews.com\/image.php?url=2APf6C_16HbXXbx00\"A long line of voters wait outside the Clovis Transit Center Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025 in Clovis. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA\/ezamora@fresnobee.com \"https:\/\/img.particlenews.com\/image.php?url=1392SO_16HbXXbx00\"A long line of voters wait outside the Clovis Transit Center to vote Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025 in Clovis. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA\/ezamora@fresnobee.com \"https:\/\/img.particlenews.com\/image.php?url=1AoJpP_16HbXXbx00\"A drive-through service is seen outside the Fresno County Elections office on Kern Street as voters hand off their ballots Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025 in Fresno. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA\/ezamora@fresnobee.com \"https:\/\/img.particlenews.com\/image.php?url=14dT4m_16HbXXbx00\"An elections workers trims \u201cI Voted\u201d stickers outside the downtown Fresno County Election office Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025 in Fresno. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA\/ezamora@fresnobee.com <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The U.S. Department of Justice deployed election monitors at several polling locations in Fresno County, though they were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38887,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[26,112,114,113,23,25,3454,26730],"class_list":{"0":"post-38886","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-fresno","10":"tag-fresno-headlines","11":"tag-fresno-news","12":"tag-local-news","13":"tag-newsbreak","14":"tag-the-fresno-bee","15":"tag-voters-report-seeing-election-watchers-at-fresno-poll-centers-what-did-they-do"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38886","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=38886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}