CA Gov. Gavin Newsom

By Cecilia Levine From Daily Voice

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is blasting the U.S. Department of Justice over its plan to monitor polling sites — including in Passaic County, NJ — during the Nov. 4, general election, calling the move “voter intimidation.”

“They have no business to do that… this is about voter intimidation, this is about voter suppression — period, full stop,” Newsom said in a video shared to X on Friday, Oct. 24. 

“This is a bridge too far, and I hope people understand they do not believe in fair and free elections. Our republic, our democracy is on the line. We all need to wake up.”

His comments came just hours after the Justice Department announced it will deploy Civil Rights Division personnel to monitor polling places in six jurisdictions — Passaic County, NJ, and Kern, Riverside, Fresno, Orange, and Los Angeles counties in California.

The Department said the initiative is part of its ongoing effort to enforce federal voting rights laws and ensure ballot access and transparency.

The announcement came just after California Republican Party Chair Corrin Rankin sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice requesting federal monitors be deployed to five counties, according to the NY Times. 

Rankin warned that reports of irregularities could weaken voter confidence and turnout. The letter also flagged concerns about past ballot errors and the reliability of voter registration records, The Times reports.

In an Oct. 20 letter addressed to Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, attorney Jason N. Sena of Archer & Greiner, P.C., writing on behalf of the New Jersey Republican State Committee, asked the Civil Rights Division to dispatch federal monitors to the Passaic County Board of Elections for the upcoming election.

Sena cited what he described as a “long and sordid history of VBM fraud with multiple indictments” involving vote-by-mail (VBM) ballots in recent elections and said the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office had been “incapable of enforcing the law and protecting the integrity of elections in Passaic County.”

The letter also criticized the Passaic County Board of Elections and its chairman John Currie, claiming county officials “routinely stand in opposition to basic transparency” and opposed measures to install video cameras and logbooks to track access to ballot storage areas.

Sena requested that federal monitors oversee “the receipt and processing of vote-by-mail ballots in the Nov. 4 General Election” and ensure “around-the-clock access” to the Board of Elections.