Why are federal election monitors heading to Fresno County? It stems from a sticky deadline in the 2022 election.

Last Friday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it was sending monitors to six locations in California and New Jersey “to ensure transparency, ballot security, and compliance with federal law.”

California voters are deciding Proposition 50, which would change congressional election maps six years early.

Fresno is one of the jurisdictions to be monitored.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, a San Francisco-based conservative who heads the department’s Civil Rights Division, is overseeing the operation.

“Transparent election processes and election monitoring are critical tools for safeguarding our elections and ensuring public trust in the integrity of our elections,” Dhillon said in a news release.

A DOJ spokesperson did not immediately respond to questions about what the monitoring will entail.

Why Fresno?

The move has drawn criticism from California leaders, including Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta.

California plans to use its own monitors to observe the federal monitors.

“They’re not going to be allowed to interfere in ways that the law prohibits,” Bonta said Monday, as reported by Politico. “We cannot be naive. The Republican Party asked for the U.S. DOJ to come in.”

California GOP Chair Corrin Rankin requested the election monitors, the party said in an post on X.

Rankin told GV Wire that election observers are routine.

“DOJ sent monitors to Alameda, Napa, and Siskiyou Counties in 2016 under President Obama, and to Los Angeles and Sonoma Counties in 2022 under President Biden. We’ve asked for federal monitors in Fresno and other counties because this is about transparency and accountability, not politics.”

Rankin detailed concerns about Fresno in an Oct. 20 letter to Dhillon.

“In Fresno County in 2022, the county closed the ballot-cure deadline after telling some voters it would be open later, providing a moving target that sapped confidence in the fairness of the election,” Rankin wrote.

Fresno County Clerk/Registrar of Voters James Kus explained the confusion. He said he had set a deadline for voters to fix or “cure” ballots that had issues with signatures. State law allows voters to correct issues such as a missing or mismatched signature.

“We did try to extend that deadline to the very last moment, using basically a floating deadline situation. It was the first election where we didn’t set a hard deadline, and that created some confusion. I acknowledged it at the time, and we changed our process back to a set deadline,” Kus said.

Kus said state law has changed since then to establish a hard deadline.

Rankin also requested monitoring in Kern, Riverside, Orange and Los Angeles counties.

Monitors Are Allowed

Kus said he welcomes all observers in for elections.

“It is common for us to have local, state, federal and sometimes international observers watching how we administer elections that are accessible, accurate, secure and transparent,” Kus said.

Mike Karbassi, the Fresno city council president challenging Kus in 2026 for the clerk job, also has no issues with monitors.

“Anyone that wants to monitor an election, whether it’s a DOJ, whether it is the Attorney General, whether is the city of Fresno — as long as they don’t interfere with elections, they have every right to do that. I’ll put it this way, I’m not surprised they’ve chosen Fresno County,” Karbassi said.

State law enshrines the right of observers, both at polling places and ballot counting locations. There are laws against voter intimidation as well.

Secretary of State Shirley Weber sent a list of dos and don’ts to county clerks on Sept. 23.

Norberto Gonzalez, state director for voting advocate group Poder Latinx, also welcomed the move.

“In the past, DOJ has sent individuals. Our elections will be monitored. Any individual here in California can actually go into an elections office and observe the vote. So go for it,” Gonzalez said.