The U.S. Department of Justice deployed approximately 1,000 election monitors to all 50 states on Tuesday, Nov. 3, marking the largest such effort in the agency's history.

Orange County is not on the list.

The DOJ's announcement named four California counties receiving monitors: Los Angeles, Alameda, Sacramento and San Diego. Newport Beach voters heading to vote centers on Election Day will not encounter federal observers.

The effort is coordinated by the DOJ's Civil Rights Division. Monitors include personnel from multiple DOJ divisions, U.S. Attorney's Offices and federal observers from the Office of Personnel Management, according to the announcement. Throughout Election Day, division staff will maintain contact with state and local election officials.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Civil Rights Division said in a statement that election integrity has been a top priority for the administration and that the department is pursuing transparency in an "assertive and nondiscriminatory manner."

The deployment has drawn pushback. Some voting rights groups, including the NAACP, said they believe the monitors could suppress turnout and disenfranchise voters, particularly from minority groups, USA Today reported. Some local election officials have also expressed concerns that a large wave of observers could intimidate voters, according to Axios.

The effort comes after courts repeatedly rejected DOJ attempts to force states to restrict voting for alleged noncitizens, Axios reported.

Orange County's election landscape

Even without federal monitors at local vote centers, Orange County has been at the center of federal election scrutiny. The DOJ asked Orange County Registrar of Voters Bob Page's office to review the citizenship status of 1,754 people the federal government identified as "likely aliens," the Los Angeles Times' Daily Pilot reported on Oct. 28. The federal government gave Page's office a 48-hour deadline to respond.

The O.C. Register reported on Oct. 27 that Orange County said it could not comply with the Justice Department's request to verify citizenship of potential voters, citing state and federal law.

Orange County has more than 1.9 million registered voters. As of Oct. 27, more than 380,000 ballots had already been returned by mail, drop box or in-person voting, Page said during a media tour of the registrar's office in Santa Ana, according to the Daily Pilot. That represented slightly more than 20% of voters.

Page said only about 1.8% of ballots get rejected for any reason, suggesting the number of people who try to vote improperly is low.

The 2024-2025 Orange County Grand Jury examined the county's election process and found no evidence of fraud or election interference in the 2024 general election, according to its published report. The grand jury concluded that voting in Orange County is "fair, secure, and transparent."

Orange County uses paper ballots, and its vote-tallying system is kept offline from the internet, Voice of OC reported in October.

Voters with questions or complaints about federal voting rights can call the DOJ's election hotline at 1-800-253-3931 or email [email protected].