Newsom deploys poll monitors as feds subpoena L.A. election workers Play

Federal prosecutors sent subpoenas Wednesday to local election workers in Los Angeles County, and the governor is sending out election monitors and dozens of election law attorneys across California to monitor the polls and the counting of ballots, starting Tuesday night.

Five key congressional districts in California are going to be the major battleground between the federal government and the state government next week. Los Angeles has some of those districts in it.

Justice Department prosecutors have warned California officials that they could be committing federal crimes if they count ballots cast by non-citizens. Washington is trying to force California to set aside the ballots of people federal officials think are likely non-citizens, but has not released any explkanation as to how poliitcal operatives came up with the list of suspects.

A federal judge has already forcefully rejected that request and told federal prosecutors to stop threatening local officials.

Governor Gavin Newsom says he's getting ready for the pending constitutional face-off. Newsom appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Tuesday.

"He's tried to disenfranchise votes. He's trying to throw out 20,000 votes before they're even counted in the state of California.

"We had to go to federal court on Sunday. We went back to federal court on Tuesday.

"And right now I am focused on getting over 1,000 poll workers out there to monitor the DOJ monitors that Trump's going to send to try to steal this election ... no question in my mind.

"We have 1,000 volunteers. We have 134 election law attorneys that we're sending out. I can't believe we have to do this.

"We have literally an 877-321-VOTE hotline so people can report in real time anything that's going on. I've got 54 people that are gonna be operators for that line.

"We have strike teams and we're gonna make sure we're monitoring the vote count until the last damn vote is counted."

This comes as the White House is ramping up allegations that the California government is allowing non-citizens to vote illegally. The Justice Department has ordered L.A. County election officials to appear before a grand jury immediately after Election Day.

Voting officials in heavily Democratic areas of the state have been targeted: Los Angeles, Orange and Santa Clara counties. These subpoenas do not mean the election officials are themselves under criminal investigation yet, but the DOJ has separately threatened many of these same officials with criminal prosecution if they don't comply with the Justice Department's demands.

Law professor Laurie Levenson calls this intimidation. "The people working the elections, they don't know who is illegal or not. And part of the reason is that the federal government never provided reliable lists.

"They're just doing their job. And yet this is a form of intimidation."

The Federal Court of Appeal has already ruled against the White House and Justice Department initiatives here, and it looks like the Republican supermajority at the U.S. Supreme Court will eventually decide.

Here in California, Governor Newsom boasted Wednesday he just made it a felony to illegally seize ballots in the state.