‘Bit surprising’: DOJ didn’t notify Fresno County clerk about monitoring election

FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – The Department of Justice announced Friday that some polling sites in California and New Jersey will be monitored, including Fresno County.

Fresno County Clerk James Kus said the DOJ’s presence in this year’s special election is welcome, but his office wasn’t given notice ahead of time.

“We’ve had about 91, 92,000 ballots in total returned so far to this point, which is a very good number,” Fresno County Clerk James Kus said.

October 26 is day two of early in-person voting in Fresno County. Voters across California are weighing in on Proposition 50.

“We have nine locations open right now across the county. We’ve had about 400, 500 in-person voters,” Kus said.

But voters might notice something when heading to the polls. According to the DOJ, five California counties are being monitored to ensure transparency, ballot security and compliance with federal law.

“I think it’s good that we have transparency here in Fresno County,” Fresno County Supervisor for District 5 Nathan Magsig said.

He added that he welcomes the news.

“We’ve got the primary coming up in June of next year. And, of course, the general election in November. So anything that the Department of Justice may find, where there’s opportunities for us to improve here in California and more specifically in Fresno County, we’re open to that,” Magsig said.

However, the County Clerk said he was never informed by the DOJ.

“It was a bit surprising because we hadn’t had that outreach. And most election observation groups, they reach out to us ahead of time to let us know they’re coming,” Kus said.

But Kus is giving grace.

“They may be just getting this going so they may not be quite ready for it. I mean, it’s not every state that has early elections or early voting opportunities like we have here in Fresno County,” Kus said.

Kus added that election monitoring is common, but it’s been some time since the DOJ was back in Fresno County.

“We have had observers from the DOJ in past elections, although it has not happened in the last four years,” Kus said.

On October 24, Governor Gavin Newsom’s office responded to the decision to monitor California’s election.

Kus also said that voters should cast their ballots as early as possible to avoid long lines and heavy crowds as we approach Nov. 4.