Thousands of observers from the right and left will descend on polling places to monitor the vote on Election Day

A wide-ranging monitoring effort

Democratic groups and outside watchdogs are organizing volunteers to watch near polling places and report activity they consider concerning. The effort includes Common Cause, the American Civil Liberties Union, state Democratic parties, congressional leaders and national activist groups.

State Democratic parties have trained an estimated 10,000 volunteers, and Common Cause has prepared roughly 16,000, said Suzanne Almeida, the group's vice president of states. An Election Protection coalition of 300 other groups has trained tens of thousands more, she said.

Other participants include about 100 volunteers organized by Senate Democrats, hundreds from the Democratic-allied group Save America, and networks activated by Indivisible and MoveOn. Some organizations cannot legally coordinate with one another.

Preparing for election risks

The Democratic National Committee has established a cybersecurity unit staffed by former CIA and FBI officials. It will monitor and report online misinformation, including artificial intelligence deepfakes, said DNC vice chair Jane Kleeb.

Democratic mayors, attorneys general and secretaries of state are holding exercises based on worst-case scenarios, including immigration agents appearing at voting locations or authorities seizing ballots and voting equipment. Democratic leaders in Congress have also assembled a legal team.

Kleeb said the party had not undertaken efforts on this scale before. She cited President Donald Trump's statements about possibly seizing ballots and placing ICE agents outside polling locations as reasons for the preparations.

Federal monitoring and responses

The Justice Department plans to send about 1,000 staff members to observe voting and check compliance with federal law, spokesperson Kiersten Pels said. The department describes this as its largest-ever election monitoring effort.

Concerns about crowding

Officials involved in the volunteer efforts worry that the number of organizations could unintentionally create confusion outside polling places. Almeida said some precincts could experience Election Day confusion, but argued that a collective effort was needed. The article reports competing concerns: Democratic organizers are preparing for possible threats to voting, while the White House rejects their warnings and officials say federal agents and troops will not be sent to polling sites.