The Trump administration plans on sending election monitors to 15 jurisdictions in six states—four of which are deep blue, with the remaining being swing states—for the remaining primary elections this summer.
Monitors will be placed in Arizona, Michigan, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Virginia. The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division chief Harmeet Dhillon made the announcement in a video posted on social media Tuesday.
“The Department of Justice, like it has in Republican and Democrat administrations in the past, is sending election monitors to places where there have been problems with the integrity of elections,” Dhillon later said on the Joe Pags Show, a conservative radio show, before reading the list of states and the specific areas that would be watched.
“Boston, Maricopa, Fairfax County, Detroit, Ramsey, Prince William, Lansing, East Lansing,” Dhillon said. “Some of these jurisdictions are jurisdictions where I’ve got personal knowledge of there being problems in the past ... the more eyes on elections, in my opinion, the better.”
President Trump also proposed sending monitors to California last year and even took open requests and complaints at a tip line. California Governor Gavin Newsom moved against that decision this week by declaring ballot seizure to be a felony.
While Dhillon sold the move as business as usual, this move comes as the administration ramps up its baseless claims of widespread election fraud. Trump has been claiming election fraud for years (in cases where he loses), more recently pushing for a vote-by-mail ban and a voter ID requirement that even his own party can’t get behind.