Election Day 2025 is just a week away, and plenty of voters, pundits, partisans and other observers are eagerly anticipating the results. But as it turns out, there’s another group of people who will be monitoring the process in an entirely different way. The Associated Press reported:

The Department of Justice is preparing to send federal election observers to California and New Jersey next month, targeting two Democratic states holding off-year elections following requests from state Republican parties. The DOJ announced Friday that it is planning to monitor polling sites in Passaic County, New Jersey, and five counties in southern and central California: Los Angeles, Orange, Kern, Riverside and Fresno.

The Justice Department approved the monitoring of polling sites, not in response to a specific problem or evidence of irregularities, but in response to requests from state Republican Party officials.

It’s important to emphasize that DOJ election monitoring is not altogether uncommon, but there is a broader context to consider. A spokesperson for California Gov. Gavin Newsom, for example, told The New York Times, “This administration has made no secret of its goal to undermine free and fair elections. Deploying these federal forces appears to be an intimidation tactic meant for one thing: suppress the vote.”

Those concerns were bolstered two days later, when Donald Trump, without a shred of evidence, claimed via his social media platform that balloting in California is “totally dishonest.”

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And while such accusations are obviously ridiculous, consider the related data points from recent weeks:

• At the White House’s behest, Republicans in some states are engaging in brazen gerrymandering, using mid-decade redistricting to win congressional races before they happen.
• The Justice Department is fighting to acquire voter registration lists and election data in several states for reasons that still haven’t been explained.
• The Republican administration has chosen election deniers to serve in key federal election roles, leading The New York Times to note that conspiracy theorists “who worked to destabilize and discredit election results after 2020” will now have “the power to potentially interfere with future contests.”
• Trump is lobbying for the total elimination of early voting.
• He’s also lobbying for the total elimination of mail-in balloting.
• He’s also lobbying for the imposition of new and unnecessary voter ID laws that would further suppress the vote.

In isolation, each of these stories matters, but taken together, we’re talking about what appears to be a multifaceted campaign against elections, launched by a president whose contempt for the democratic process is unsubtle.

With a year remaining before the 2026 midterm elections, there is every reason to believe this offensive will only get worse in the coming months.