Federal election monitors visited San Diego County vote centers on Tuesday, Nov. 3, as part of what the U.S. Department of Justice called its largest monitoring effort in history.
The DOJ deployed about 1,000 monitors and observers to all 50 states, a first for the agency, according to a DOJ press release. In California, monitors were sent to San Diego, Los Angeles, Alameda and Sacramento counties.
As we reported earlier Tuesday, Carlsbad-area voters headed to the polls with statewide voting hours running from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
A spokesperson for the San Diego County Registrar of Voters confirmed the monitors' presence, saying the office had been informed that monitors from the DOJ's Civil Rights Division were visiting vote centers in the county to check compliance with federal laws on language assistance and voter accessibility, according to 10News.
The DOJ did not disclose which specific polling locations monitors would visit. A department spokesperson said monitors would be at polling locations but that the department was not giving out precinct details, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Civil Rights Division, who coordinated the effort, said in the DOJ press release that election integrity has been a top priority for the administration and the division.
Historically, election monitors visited only jurisdictions with a history of discrimination in a limited number of states, according to Spotlight PA. Monitors are supposed to observe and document potential violations but are barred from engaging in political activity or intimidating voters.
The remaining DOJ monitors were directed to dress in business casual and were forbidden from wearing insignia, carrying firearms or attempting to arrest would-be voters, the Los Angeles Times reported. The DOJ had removed several sworn law enforcement officers from its pool of volunteer monitors after a review, according to a court filing Tuesday.
California sends its own observers
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the state deployed its own election observers on Nov. 3 in partnership with the California Secretary of State's Office. Bonta wrote on X that the state was acting to ensure no one was discouraged from casting a ballot, according to NBC San Diego.
Some voting rights groups, including the NAACP, said they believed the deployment of monitors could suppress turnout and disenfranchise voters, particularly from minority groups, USA Today reported.
Ballot dispute backdrop
The monitoring effort came amid a legal battle over ballots in California. The Trump administration sought to require the state to set aside ballots from roughly 20,000 registered voters it identified as possible noncitizens, according to NBC San Diego. A federal judge, a federal appeals court and the U.S. Supreme Court all rejected the administration's requests for a restraining order over the past week.
State and local officials said that while there are likely some individual instances of illegal voting, there is no evidence of widespread fraud influencing election outcomes, NBC San Diego reported.
Then, just before noon Tuesday, a panel of 11 judges on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 6-5 that federal officials can demand states set aside ballots of suspected noncitizens and can warn election workers that counting them could result in federal prosecution, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Voters with questions or complaints about federal voting rights can call the DOJ's election hotline at 1-800-253-3931.
