Two federal election monitors are expected to be in Orange County to observe election proceedings over four days next week, according to the county’s Registrar of Voters.
The monitors, sent by the U.S. Department of Justice, are scheduled to observe how California’s special election on redistricting unfolds in Orange County from Monday, Nov. 3, through Thursday, Nov. 6, the registrar’s office said.
Related: Southern California’s guide to Prop. 50, the 2025 redistricting election
Orange is one of five counties in California where federal election monitors are expected to visit, the Justice Department announced last week. The others are Los Angeles, Riverside, Kern and Fresno counties.
In announcing the election monitors, the Justice Department said the goal is “to ensure transparency, ballot security, and compliance with federal law.”
The California Republican Party had requested the federal monitors, alleging “reports of irregularities” in these five counties in previous elections.
In a letter to Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, California Republican Party Chair Corrin Rankin mentioned concerns with Orange County’s voter list maintenance practices.
Rankin referenced a Justice Department lawsuit against Orange County Registrar Bob Page, whom the federal government is suing for allegedly not providing full records related to the removal of non-citizens from voter registration lists. Page responded to the federal government’s request for the records but redacted certain personal and sensitive information, such as driver’s license or state ID numbers, Social Security numbers, language preferences, race and signature images — actions which county attorneys said were in line with state and federal law.
Page, in a statement last week, said it’s common for his office to have local, state, federal and even international observers watch how elections are administered.
“Orange County elections are always transparent. … We welcome anyone who wants to learn more about how Orange County conducts elections to observe our operations,” Page said.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, meanwhile, has accused President Donald Trump‘s administration of attempting to intimidate or suppress voters in the special election, while California Attorney General Rob Bonta said he believed Trump was laying the groundwork to claim election fraud in next year’s midterm elections or beyond without any proof.
Dhillon, a former vice chair of the California Republican Party, and other GOP members have defended the decision to send in federal election monitors, calling transparency “a good thing.”
It’s not unheard of for federal election monitors to show up at voting places.
But the Justice Department’s plan to send them to California comes at a time when the state is holding a closely-watched election: Voters are deciding on Proposition 50, a ballot measure that, if passed, would mean new congressional maps for California that could impact which political party controls the U.S. House of Representatives after next year’s midterm elections.
The partisan maps proposed under Prop. 50 are meant to position Democrats to pick up five more House seats in California, a move favored by Newsom to counter similar gerrymandering efforts in some Republican-led states at the behest of Trump. Texas, Missouri and North Carolina are seeking to secure enough GOP wins to allow Republicans to retain control of the House after the 2026 elections.
California state officials, including Bonta and Secretary of State Shirley Weber, said this week that rules prohibiting election monitors from harassing and intimidating voters — or otherwise disrupting normal business at voting locations — apply also to the federal observers sent by the Justice Department.