DOJ Will Monitor Polls In Heavily Latino Counties In New Jersey, California

The Department of Justice announced on Friday that it will monitor polls in six heavily Latino counties in New Jersey and California during elections held on Nov. 4.

The announcement comes as concerns mount about how the Trump administration may seek to interfere with and undermine U.S. elections. President Donald Trump has repeatedly cast doubt on election results in every election cycle since he first ran for president, including trying to steal the 2020 election. In March, Trump issued an executive order purporting to alter election laws to require proof of citizenship at the polls, but this was blocked by a court as the president has no unilateral role in setting election laws.

Politics: Here’s The Canadian Viral Video That Triggered Trump Into A Full-Blown Meltdown

Rick Hasen, an election law professor at UCLA, called the DOJ announcement a “Test run for 2026.”

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

Passaic County has the highest percentage Latino population in New Jersey at nearly 43%. Both Fresno and Kern are majority Latino counties while Los Angeles, Riverside and Orange are among the California counties with the highest Latino populations, each exceeding 1 million. Los Angeles County has a Latino population of 4.8 million. A majority of the population in all of these counties, except for Los Angeles and Orange, voted for Trump in 2024.

The New Jersey state Republican Party requested monitors in Passaic County after the county election board rejected Republican requests for the use of video cameras and logbooks in mail voting storage and counting rooms.

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

Politics: Stephen Miller’s Face-To-Face Flattery Of Trump Hits New Level Of Sycophancy

DOJ claims that its monitoring through its Civil Rights Division is meant to “ensure transparency, ballot security, and compliance with federal law.” The Civil Rights Division does routinely monitor polls to ensure that states are not suppressing minority voters and remain in compliance with the Voting Rights Act. The Trump administration, however, is openly opposed to the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Division has inverted the original intent of civil rights law to make supposed anti-white discrimination its priority.

“The Department of Justice will do everything 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 election processes and election monitoring are critical tools for safeguarding our elections and ensuring public trust 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 rampant in U.S. elections. That is false. But this falsehood is the justification behind Trump’s push for a proof of citizenship requirement for voting and for numerous bogus legal complaints filed in the run-up to the 2024 election.

What federal monitors may be looking for remains to be seen.

Political Updates

Read the original on HuffPost