Senate Dems Say They Will Deploy Congressional Observers to Polls For Closely Contested Senate Races

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senate Committee on Rules and Administration Ranking Member Alex Padilla (D-CA) announced Senate Democrats recruited and trained more than 100 staffers to monitor voting and ballot counting during the upcoming midterm elections.

The official congressional election observers will be deployed to polling sites across nine states with closely contested Senate races in November, Schumer and Padilla told reporters on Wednesday.

“Donald Trump has made clear that he wants to ‘take over the voting’ in state-run elections. Election interference is unconstitutional and illegal and Congress will be watching,” Padilla said. 

The announcement comes just 20 days ahead of Election Day, as the Trump administration attempts to disrupt election administration and right-wing activists urge the president to take drastic action to influence the outcome. 

Democrats mentioned Ohio, Georgia and Michigan — three states with critical Senate races — as among the states to which monitors would be deployed. Others include North Carolina, Maine, Texas, Iowa, Nebraska and Alaska. A spokesperson for Schumer’s office told TPM that more may be added.

For years now, President Donald Trump has relentlessly sowed doubt in the integrity of U.S. elections. 

Attorney General Todd Blanche has said that the Department of Justice plans to send 1,000 election monitors to polling places on Nov. 3.

Trump’s allies have also called for him to send federal immigration enforcement officers to polling places. Department of Homeland Security officials say they don’t plan to send agents en masse to patrol the polls, but various administration officials have evaded attempts by members of Congress to pin them down on the topic.

The president has also tried to implement restrictions on mail-in ballots ahead of the November elections. The Supreme Court rejected that plan in September, upholding a federal judge’s order that temporarily blocked the U.S. Postal Service from moving forward with the new requirements for ballots.

Trump and some far-right congressional Republicans have also been pushing — unsuccessfully — to pass the SAVE America Act, a voter suppression bill that would require voters to present proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote and ID before they can cast a ballot.

Senate Democrats launched the Senate Election Observer Program back in June, citing fears of exactly these kinds of attempts of interference. They now say they have trained more than 100 staffers since then.

“Donald Trump is trying to steal the election — but Democrats and the American people won’t let him,” Schumer said Wednesday, adding that he is “grateful for the Senate staff members who are raising their hand to help build trust in our upcoming election and protect the sanctity of our democracy.” 

“The voters will decide the next election — not Trump,” the minority leader added. 

The trained staffers will not interfere with election officials’ duties, Senate Democrats said. The program will simply place trained observers on the ground to document any election interference, including any potential instances of voter interference, threats to election workers, misinformation and disinformation as well as any issues that may come up regarding the certification of elections.