24 October 2025/SF Politics/Joe Kukura
Even though there’s only one issue on your upcoming November 4 ballot, Trump’s Justice Department is calling out the cavalry of so-called election monitors to spy on polling places, perhaps as a warm-up for the 2026 midterms.
There’s only one issue on the ballot for that election coming up in 11 days, the statewide redistricting measure Prop 50. And Prop 50 is currently ahead by 20 percentage points in the polls, so there does not seem like much suspense or intrigue around how that one’s going to turn out.
But now there is suddenly some intrigue around the November 4 California election, and it may not bode well for the state. The Chronicle reports that US Attorney General Pam Bondi is sending federal election monitors to California polling places on November 4, maybe to sow the seeds of doubt when Republicans get shellacked in a big Prop 50 loss, or maybe to lay some groundwork for voter intimidation tactics ahead of the 2026 midterm races.
“Transparency at the polls translates into faith in the electoral process, and this Department of Justice is committed to upholding the highest standards of election integrity,” Bondi said in a Friday statement. “We will commit the resources necessary to ensure the American people get the fair, free, and transparent elections they deserve.”
Governor Gavin Newsom, who pretty much invented the idea for Prop 50, was no wallflower in his response. Newsom went straight to KQED for an interview once the news broke.
“They are creating the pretext that after we’re successful with Prop 50, after there is a Democratic governor in New Jersey — and will be one in Virginia, unquestionably — that they can suggest somehow these were fraudulent, these elections were rigged against them,” Newsom told KQED’s Political Breakdown podcast. “This is a preview of 2026. Wake up, everybody.”
You’ll notice Newsom mentions New Jersey, which has a governor’s race election that same day. He mentions New Jersey because the Justice Department announcement singles out only five counties in the entire US that are getting election monitors. One of those counties is Passaic County, New Jersey, the other five are in California. (And of course, both New Jersey and California are blue states getting this unsolicited federal attention.)
Though we will say it’s odd that three of the five California counties getting the election monitors went for Trump in the 2024 election. That prompts the question of why this is happening.
According to the Associated Press, “the announcement comes days after the Republican parties in both states wrote letters to the DOJ requesting their assistance.” So the California Republican Party clearly had something to do with this, and they’re definitely well aware they’ll likely be screwed out of five US House of Representatives seats if Prop 50 passes.
So the San Francisco Bay Area does not appear to be a target of this Trump Justice Department push to monitor the election. But it’s fair for us here to wonder if it’s not more of an effort to interfere with the election, or to work on a playbook to game future elections.
Related: In Typical Fashion, Trump Now Spreading Lies About the California Vote Count In 2024 [SFist]
Image: Joe Kukura, SFist
