Democrats and outside watchdog groups are preparing a large presence at polling places on Election Day, driven by concern that President Donald Trump could use federal resources to interfere with midterm elections that could shape the final two years of his term. They will be joined by the largest monitoring program the Justice Department has ever fielded, along with additional observers from Republican-aligned groups. The combined effort could produce a level of scrutiny at the polls unlike anything seen in modern times.
On the left, a broad election protection network that includes Common Cause and the American Civil Liberties Union is training volunteers to stand watch outside polling places and report activity they consider concerning. Volunteers are being assembled by state Democratic parties, congressional leaders, national activist groups and organizations focused on protecting democracy. Common Cause has trained roughly 16,000 volunteers to watch voting precincts, said Suzanne Almeida, the group's vice president of states. She said a wider Election Protection coalition involving 300 other groups has trained tens of thousands more. State Democratic parties have trained an estimated 10,000 volunteers to observe polling places and report anything they see from federal agents.
The Democratic National Committee's Association of State Democratic Committees has also created a cybersecurity unit staffed by former CIA and FBI officials to monitor and report online misinformation, including artificial intelligence deepfakes, according to Jane Kleeb, the DNC vice chair. Democratic mayors, attorneys general and secretaries of state are holding tabletop exercises that simulate worst-case scenarios, such as a surge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials at voting locations or the seizure of ballots and voting equipment. Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill have assembled a legal team that rivals that of any presidential campaign.
Kleeb described the scale of the effort as unprecedented. "We've never done this before," she said. But "we've never had to deal with the president of the United States saying that he may seize ballots, put ICE agents outside polling locations and other kinds of very clear direct threats to the voting process."
Smaller groups are also preparing to show up. Roughly 100 volunteers are being organized by Senate Democrats, and hundreds more come from a Democratic-allied group called Save America, which is training clergy members, veterans, teachers and other local community members. National groups including Indivisible and MoveOn are activating their own networks. Some officials involved worry that so many organizations, many of which cannot legally coordinate with one another, could unintentionally create confusion outside polling locations. Almeida acknowledged that Election Day confusion is possible in some precincts but said the threats the coalition fears require a collective response. "It will actually take all of us if some of the threats we are most worried about come to pass," she said.
The Justice Department has already filed lawsuits in California and Alaska that could affect ballot counting or certification. Trump has continued to make baseless allegations of cheating in the election. White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis blamed "radical Democrats" for creating fears about election security by refusing to enact voter ID requirements and other Republican-backed measures. "President Trump has done more than any other president to ensure we have free and fair elections," Bis said.
On the federal side, Harmeet Dhillon, the Trump appointee who leads the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, was asked on CBS's "60 Minutes" whether the administration plans to send ICE agents to polling places. "There is no plan to do that," she responded. Administration and military officials have said they have no plans to deploy immigration agents or troops to polling sites.
The department is nonetheless planning its largest-ever election monitoring effort, with about 1,000 staff expected to observe voting and ensure federal laws are followed, spokesperson Kiersten Pels said. That follows a primary season in which the department deployed more than 100 election monitors across hundreds of polling locations. At least one placement caused friction with local officials. Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon, a Republican, said the behavior of two monitors during that state's primary was "a bit aggressive" and "irregular." A Laramie County clerk said Justice Department monitors arrived intending to interview voters, and her office did not allow it. Pels said the department disagrees that the monitors did anything improper and that they are trained to comply with federal law governing conduct at polling places and will not "interfere with the voting process."
Democratic lawmakers and voting rights advocates have raised concerns that the monitors could intimidate voters or abandon the longstanding duty to protect against civil rights violations. According to a senior department official who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity, the department plans to send monitors to every state, focusing on high-population areas, jurisdictions with past problems and districts with close elections.