WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senate Democrats announced they’ve recruited and trained more than one-hundred congressional staff members to be part of the new “election observer program.” The program will deploy these staffers to polling sites across nine states to observe and document any attempted voter interference.
“The goal is simple: we deter interference, promote transparency, protect voter confidence and ensure fair elections are decided by the voters not by some outside force or by partisan meddling,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D- NY) Senate Minority Leader.
Senators made it clear their role is strictly noninterfering but rather documenting and reporting objective information to help the senate address any potentially contested Senate elections and to inform future legislation and oversight work related to federal election administration.
“Donald Trump has made it clear he wants to undermine our elections and interfere with the democratic process,” said Sen. Schumer. “He’s talked about wanting to take over the voting- that’s his quote – take over the voting. “So we’re not just waiting to see what happens, we’re preparing now.”
The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division announced in August that the Department plans to deploy one-thousand of its own election monitors to polling sites across the country. They called it the largest monitoring effort in the Department’s history.
We asked what image these election observers portray when voters see them at the polls?
“That’s a great question and let me make it clear, election observers are going to be doing just that, observing,” said Sen. Alex Padilla (D- CA), Ranking Member on the Senate Rules Committee. “They’re not there to interfere, they’re not there to cause a scene. This is not the first time there’s an election observation in the history of country. The House has been doing it for several cycles as I’ve mentioned, there’s lots of NGOs that have their own election observer program. I think people should feel reassured there’s going to be a spotlight we’re adding transparency to election administration and people should be able to exercise their right to vote with that confidence.”
