Democratic groups and voting rights organizations have intensified election preparations ahead of the midterm elections, citing concerns about Trump administration interference in voting processes.
Marc Elias, a Democratic elections attorney, said he is handling 90 election-related cases across 41 states. "We have never had a federal government that has taken the actions that this federal government has," Elias said on a call with voting rights groups.
House Administration ranking member Joseph D. Morelle said Democrats' election security efforts this year are "unprecedented." He said his office started with 150 identified threats eight or nine months ago and has developed mitigation and response strategies for all of them. Those threats include Trump administration efforts to curtail mail-in voting and pass legislation requiring sweeping voter ID requirements.
More than 300 Democratic congressional staff have signed up for observer training, according to an Oct. 27 letter from Morelle. A Republican committee spokesperson said staff volunteers will be deployed to around 50 congressional districts but declined to say how many Republicans signed up.
The Trump administration plans to deploy 1,000 officials nationwide as election monitors on Election Day. Those monitors will come from the Bureau of Prisons, Drug Enforcement Administration, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, but not from the FBI or Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to court papers filed this week.
Voting rights groups have also expanded their efforts. The ACLU said it has assembled its largest election safeguarding program in its history, including 100,000 volunteers. Leah Wong of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund said her organization has established networks of volunteers and attorneys ready to respond to problems on Election Day, ranging from mistranslated ballots to polling place changes.
Sophia Lin Lakin, director of the ACLU's Voting Rights Project, said the big difference this year has been Trump administration involvement. In the first Trump term, the ACLU dealt with fewer than 10 election cases. Now it is over 40.