Dem
47
GOP
53
The DoJ is going to send election monitors to California and New Jersey on Election Day. That is a week from tomorrow. Time flies like an arrow (in contrast, fruit flies like a banana). The official reason to send DoJ monitors to elections sites is mumble mumble, but the real and obvious reason is to intimidate voters. Those states are perfectly capable of running their own elections. The requests for "help" didn't come from the governors of those states, but from Republican officials in those states.
Democrats blasted the decision. New Jersey AG Matt Platkin said the move was "highly inappropriate" and also said the DoJ has not even attempted to give a legitimate reason for showing up. A spokesman for Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) said that the DoJ has no standing at all to interfere in the California election this year because there are no federal races on the ballot in 2025, just a state initiative. Newsom said: "Deploying these federal forces appears to be an intimidation tactic meant for one thing: suppress the vote."
This stunt appears to be a dry run for Nov. 3, 2026, when Donald Trump might send heavily armed National Guard troops to carefully selected polling places to demand voters to show them proof of citizenship before letting them in the building.
One problem for the DoJ's intimidation program though is that most Californians now vote by mail. This means there will be relatively few voters to intimidate at the polling places on Election Day.
Nevertheless, all Democratic governors should be expecting armed federal troops in polling places in heavily Democratic precincts next year. They should be preparing for it. There are several steps they can take. First, if they have the trifecta, change state laws to make voting by mail easier and for a longer period, advertise how easy vote-by-mail is, and encourage everyone to vote by mail. They should also create a system by which voters can verify online that their absentee ballot was received and counted. California already has this and could help other states implement the same system. Voter intimidation is much less effective if nobody shows up to vote in person. But for voters who want to vote in person, allow early in-person voting from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., and for the 30 days prior to the election.
Second, states could print up millions of cards explaining voters' rights and begin distributing them next summer. Have English and Spanish versions (and other languages, as appropriate). Among other things, the cards could note that neither federal nor state law requires voters to have proof of citizenship to vote and that interfering with a voter is a federal crime punishable by time in prison. Many states have similar laws. Voters should be encouraged to take these cards to their polling place and show them to anyone asking for ID. Poll workers should also have a pile of them available.
A third thing a state could do is enlist and train thousands of volunteers to stand outside polling places to watch for any troops or federal officials who are questioning voters on the way in. When a volunteer sees that happening, the volunteer could hand the guardsman or guardswoman one of the cards, start making a video recording, and then cite the relevant statutes while filming and saying "At your trial, you won't be able to say you didn't know that voter intimidation is a federal crime." Remember, the person doing the intimidation is probably not a grizzled police officer with 30 years on the beat. It is more likely a scared 19-year-old kid who signed up for the National Guard to make a few bucks and play with big guns.
A fourth thing a state can do is enlist and train hundreds of volunteer lawyers to be available on call to answer questions about voting, preferably with a centralized 1-800-xxx-yyyy phone number. The state could also require a poster outside each polling place summarizing the laws prohibiting intimidating voters. It should also say "If someone is intimidating you, call 1-800-xxx-yyyy toll-free for help."
The Brennan Center for Justice has a good guide to laws about intimidating voters and election workers. It is not too early to begin thinking about this for 2026. (V)