A coalition of civil rights and advocacy groups plans to deploy hundreds of poll watchers this fall at heavily minority precincts to counter what organizers say is a threat of voter intimidation from President Donald Trump’s administration.
The National Action Network, the American Federation of Teachers and the Save America Movement are launching the Vote Safe project, which they described as a nonpartisan initiative set to begin during early voting and culminate in the Nov. 3 midterm elections. They are focusing on Michigan, Ohio, Georgia and North Carolina, all of which are competitive in the battle for control of the Senate.
Trump has routinely raised alarms about the threat of voter fraud this fall, stoking fears among his followers and prompting calls for preemptive action. He has urged Republicans to nationalize elections, and some administration officials haven’t ruled out deploying agents to polls, even though federal law prohibits doing so.
“There is really an unprecedented threat to our elections this year, and it’s coming from our own government,” Mary Corcoran, executive director of the Save America Movement, said in an interview. Corcoran co-founded the group along with Lincoln Project co-founder Steve Schmidt to counter what they see as the excesses of Trump’s MAGA movement.
Those locations were chosen as politically significant areas with large populations of people of color that could be vulnerable to intimidation, she said. The idea is to have trained community members — such as faith leaders, teachers, veterans and firefighters — at polling places, so voters “can go there with confidence,” Corcoran said. “We want to replace that fear with comfort and knowledge.”
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said at a news conference Tuesday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents aren’t meant to patrol polling places but may be present if they are serving a warrant or responding to a threat. Then-White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said at a news conference this year that she “can’t guarantee that an ICE agent won’t be around a polling location in November” but added that she hadn’t heard Trump discuss plans to do so.
Former Trump strategist and podcaster Stephen K. Bannon has suggested that ICE deployments at airports could serve as a “test run” for similar efforts at election sites.
While both political parties have increasingly deployed poll watchers since 2020, recent years have seen clashes over charges of voter intimidation. During 2022’s midterm elections, a court order stopped armed, masked individuals from photographing people casting early ballots in Arizona. This year, the Justice Department has said it plans to send 1,000 monitors to the polls.
Organizers said they modeled the Vote Safe initiative after a project the Save America Movement undertook last year to station observers and videographers in areas of the country with a heavy ICE presence in hopes of preventing violence.
Corcoran said volunteers are being trained in local election laws and techniques to de-escalate tense situations. They will be clearly identified with Vote Safe insignia, she said, and none will be armed.
Vote Safe plans to deploy poll watchers around Detroit, Atlanta, Cleveland and Charlotte, in the 20 precincts in each area with the highest expected turnout of racial-minority voters.
Citing the Supreme Court’s recent weakening of protections for minority voters in the Voting Rights Act, the organizers said they want to ensure that voters of every ethnicity feel welcome at polling places. They also want to protect voters from having their immigration status inappropriately challenged.
“No voter should have to wonder whether exercising their constitutional right will put them at risk,” the Rev. Al Sharpton, founder of the National Action Network, said in a statement. “If anyone thinks the presence or threat of federal agents will frighten our communities away from the polls, they are badly mistaken.”
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said in a statement that the coalition’s goal is for voters to feel there is “someone standing beside them who knows their rights and knows the law,” so they can cast a ballot with confidence.
Patrick Marley contributed to this report.
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