When international intervention is necessary in sub-national voting.
This column is produced and published by Zócalo Public Square. Image made with Gemini.
Here’s a letter that Gov. Gavin Newsom should write, but won’t.
Secretary-General António Guterres
United Nations
405 East 42nd Street
New York, NY 10017
Your Excellency:
I write to request that the United Nations send election monitors to California. We require monitors for next year’s two statewide elections—in June and November—and for the presidential primaries and general election in 2028.
My request may surprise you, because California’s election management is inclusive and excellent, and there are no credible challenges to the results of our votes.
The trouble is that our elections face dangerous, bad-faith attack from a rights-violating nation that is a member of your body: the United States.
In our recently concluded special election, President Trump and his regime engaged in many of the abuses and intimidation tactics that have convinced the U.N. to deploy election monitors in other countries.
The U.N. provides member states eight types of electoral assistance. California primarily needs one of them: “support to creating a conducive environment” for elections. We believe the U.N.’s presence would help create such an environment, and serve both to document and discourage any abuses or attacks on voting.
Trump seeks to create a threatening environment that discourages voters and frightens election workers. The day after California’s special election was called in August, Trump’s defense secretary extended the deployment of 300 National Guard troops in Los Angeles through election day, Nov. 4—against the wishes of local civilian leaders.
During the month-long voting period, U.S. federal immigration agents continued their abductions and violent assaults of immigrants and U.S. citizens. Surveys suggest that the presence of such agents during election season was particularly concerning to Californians of Latin American heritage, the most common targets of federal abuses, and may have discouraged some from voting.
In the days before the election, the U.S. Department of Justice, which Trump openly uses for personal and political vengeance, sent monitors to California counties that have large Latino populations and tend to support Trump’s political opposition.
U.N. observers, by witnessing an election and producing a customary report, could also be a bulwark against rampant regime misinformation. Trump has justified his election interference with constant lies. He discouraged people from voting by mail, and on election day declared falsely that the election was “a GIANT SCAM in that the entire process, in particular the Voting itself, is RIGGED.”
He also attacked independent media as “enemies of the people” and urged violence and retribution against them. If you could ask UNESCO to do more to support U.S. press freedom against Trump and the increasingly regime-allied corporate media, the regular author of this column would appreciate it.
Trump’s 2025 lies follow his false claims during the 2020 presidential election, which incited a riot and attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Why is all this an issue for the United Nations, rather than just the U.S.? Because you’ve already made it one. In 2023, the U.N.’s International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, via its Human Rights Committee, published a report documenting attacks on voting rights in the U.S. The report cited policies that the Trump regime and its local allies have pursued—harassment against election officials, burdensome voter identification, and restrictions on voting by mail.
I ask you, and the U.N., to recognize California for what it now is—not a state within a democratic republic, but a colony of a repressive and oligarchic dictatorship.
The U.S. has ignored that report’s recommendations, and Trump is threatening to end voting-by-mail in California by an illegal executive order next year. That is not the only escalation California expects. Trump and advisors have long suggested using military force in elections.
Given the urgency of the matter, I ask that you forward this request immediately to the General Assembly, which I believe might approve it, thus demonstrating the world’s concern about the U.S. regime’s commitment to free and fair elections.
I recognize that the Security Council must also approve my request, and that Trump is likely to block it there, using America’s veto. Such a rejection would be useful, too. By blocking the request to monitor an election he claims are rigged, the U.S. president would be demonstrating his hypocrisy—and lack of commitment to free and fair elections.
In that event, I would ask that you consider sending elections observers anyway. Your justification would be that California, as I say in nearly every speech I make, is itself a nation-state, distinct from the United States and worthy of membership in the United Nations.
This reflects more than just our large population and our global power in economics and culture. It acknowledges the reality that the U.S. has effectively kicked California out of the country.
This is not an overstatement. The president lawlessly and systematically violates Californians’ rights. He denies our federal funds, threatens to imprison our elected officials (including me), and sends the U.S. military to occupy us. Recently, Trump declared that “between California and Colombia, there’s not that much difference,” lumping us in with a country where he has imposed sanctions and ordered extrajudicial killings—a practice to which the U.N. has objected.
I ask you, and the U.N., to recognize California for what it now is—not a state within a democratic republic, but a colony of a repressive and oligarchic dictatorship. Your presence here would continue a long U.N. tradition of supporting and defending elections in places attempting decolonization or transition from authoritarianism, among them Timor-Leste, South Africa, Mozambique, El Salvador, and Cambodia.
Before too long, California could be asking for admission as an independent nation. In that circumstance, the U.S. may object, saying that there is only room for one America in your body. This is not a new message for you; there is only room for “one China” in the U.N., with the People’s Republic in, and Taiwan out.
In that case, let me plant a seed—that, if there is to be only one America in the U.N., that America should be California.
According to Article 4 of your charter, the U.N. “is open to all other peace-loving States which accept the obligations” that document sets out. Trump openly attacks the U.N. and its rules; California is clearly committed to these obligations.
We believe in “settling international disputes peacefully” (unlike the U.S. regime in the Caribbean), “refraining from the threat or use of force against another state’s territorial integrity or political independence” (unlike the threats Trump hurls at Canada and Greenland), and “giving the U.N. assistance in its actions” (unlike Trump, who wants to defund you).
When we’re ready for membership, I’ll be in touch again. Because we’re gonna need your peacekeepers.
Yours in peace and democracy,
Gavin
