California to monitor the Justice Department's election watchers next week

State Attorney General Rob Bonta announced California will deploy its own election observers after U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said DOJ would monitor polls in five counties.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta said Monday that the state will dispatch its own observers to monitor federal election watchers deployed by the Trump administration ahead of an election that will decide whether to move forward with redistricting plans.

Bonta's announcement came in response to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi's saying Friday that the Justice Department would monitor polls in six jurisdictions leading up to the Nov. 4 election, including five in California, following a request from the California Republican Party.

“The feigned worry by the Republican Party I don’t think is a good source of true raising of concerns and servicing of concerns about the elections,” Bonta, a Democrat, said during a virtual news conference.

While Bonta did not provide many details about what the state's observers would do, he said the registrar of voters, the state secretary of state’s office and his office “would have some role potentially.”

“There will be observers of the election monitors, so-called election monitors, that the DOJ is sending," Bonta told reporters, adding that the federal watchers "will not be allowed to do things that they’re not allowed to do. They’re not going to be allowed to interfere in ways that the law prohibits.”