Poll workers across the country have expressed anxiety over potential conflicts revolving around midterm Election Day results.
Republican and Democratic groups have already launched dozens of lawsuits over the integrity of the midterm elections, according to the Associated Press, with dozens more likely to be filed in the aftermath. Republican accusations of voter fraud and Democratic accusations of voter suppression have set the stage for a greater conflict on Nov. 8.
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“We’re now at the point where charges of fraud and suppression are baked into the turnout models for each party,” Benjamin Ginsberg, co-chairman of the Election Official Legal Defense Network and former counsel to the George W. Bush campaign and other Republican candidates, told the Associated Press. “Republicans charge fraud. Democrats charge suppression. Each side amplifies its position with massive and costly amounts of litigation and messaging.”
Both parties have assembled an army of lawyers to litigate their claims. The Republican National Committee has created a multimillion-dollar election integrity team consisting of 37 lawyers in key states who have held more than 5,000 training sessions to help volunteers look for fraud. The team has so far filed 73 suits in 20 states.
“We built an unprecedented election integrity ground game to ensure that November’s midterm elections are free, fair, and transparent,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in September.
Other Republican teams have filed suits as well, including America First Legal, run by former Trump adviser Stephen Miller.
Democratic efforts have been just as widespread and vigorous, with their claims revolving around claims of voter suppression. One team led by attorney Marc Elias and his firm are litigating approximately 40 cases across 19 states, while other Democratic-led groups cited by the Associated Press have initiated around 35 additional suits.
Federal officials have spread the conspiracy theory that Russia is attempting to subvert the midterm elections as well, albeit without evidence, according to an unclassified intelligence advisory obtained by the Associated Press. Larry Norden, an election security analyst with the Brennan Center for Justice, even suggested that messages about candidates written in an “alarmist or emotionally charged way” may be the work of Russia or China.
All of these issues combined present a contentious environment that has worried poll workers, who are increasingly expressing their fears about confrontations over the election.
“So who is worried about observer disruptions?” Claire Woodall-Vogg, head of the Milwaukee Election Commission, told a group of volunteers, according to the Associated Press. “Who has read things or heard things on the news, and you’re a little nervous? I am. I’ll raise my hand.”
Poll watchers “have traditionally been an essential element of electoral transparency, the eyes and ears for the two major political parties who help ensure that the actual mechanics of voting are administered fairly and accurately,” reported the Associated Press. Despite this, election workers speaking with the outlet complained that Republican monitors question their work too often.
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The role of poll watchers is to observe and question election workers, ensuring that they stick to procedure. However, some election workers maintain that their questioning interferes with their work and creates a contentious environment.
The FBI has created a task force to deal with the harassment of election workers in the summer of 2021. Since its creation, the task force has logged 1,000 threats to workers through social media, phone, email, and in person. Of these, however, only 11% constituted a federal crime, according to the Associated Press. Four arrests have been made around the threats.
