Despite the lack of evidence, President Donald Trump and his top aides continue to contend they need to keep fighting the alleged voter fraud he falsely blamed for his 2020 defeat.

As part of that, Trump has announced plans, mostly not yet implemented, to expand the federal role in state supervision of elections. Next week, the Justice Department is sending federal agents to monitor off-year state elections in California and New Jersey.

While the department called election monitoring a routine function, some Democrats fear it’s the first step in making fraud claims this year -- and next. “This is a preview of 2026,” warned California Gov. Gavin Newsom, referring to next year’s congressional elections. “Wake up, everybody.”And California’s Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the state would dispatch its own observers to monitor the federal ones.Its goal, the Justice Department said, is “to ensure transparency, ballot security and compliance with federal law.”

While past administrations also sent federal monitors, there are no federal elections Tuesday, and the administration’s moves stem primarily from local GOP criticism of mail-in voting, a persistent target of criticism by Trump.

The New Jersey Republicans requested federal monitors to “oversee the receipt and processing of vote-by-mail ballots.” In California, where most voting is by mail, GOP Chairwoman Corrin Rankin wrote that, “In recent elections, we have received reports of irregularities in these (five) counties that we fear will........

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