Civil Rights Groups Plan Thousands of Poll Observers; Administration Did Not Invite OSCE Monitors

Early voting began in Arizona on Oct. 7, and with Election Day set for Nov. 3, organizers on the left are building a volunteer corps to watch the polls.

Living United for Change in Arizona, known as LUCHA, held the first of several planned in-person trainings in Phoenix last week for what it calls "constitutional observers." The group describes itself as left-of-center. The pitch to volunteers was modest. "Monitor the polling environment," trainer Carime Rodriguez told them. "Stay aware of what's happening on the ground."

Observing is the whole job. Poll watching itself is nothing new, and both parties have done it for decades. What has changed is the scale and the stated target.

The ICE concern

Rodriguez told volunteers that during Arizona's primaries earlier this year, immigration enforcement ticked up, including around polling sites in Maricopa County. That is her account, and no source in the record puts a number on it.

LUCHA Executive Director Alejandra Gomez said the group is "hoping for the best, preparing for the worst."

Mary Corcoran, co-founder of the left-leaning Save America Movement, told NPR the aim of any ICE presence would be "to scare people and use fear as an intimidation factor to keep people home." Her group is partnering with the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network and unions including the American Federation of Teachers. The groups say they will field thousands of observers.

The law is not in dispute on one point. It is illegal for armed federal officers to be at polling places, and lawsuits have been filed to enforce that.

Administration officials have said ICE has no plans to target polling locations. Steve Bannon, an ally of the president, has publicly urged Trump to send agents anyway. Trump officials have also said ICE could serve warrants at polling places. That gap between the official denial and the allies' rhetoric is what the observer groups say keeps them preparing.

No OSCE invitation

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe has observed 12 rounds of U.S. elections since 2002, including six midterms. This year it will not.

The OSCE said in a Sept. 23 statement that the U.S. decision not to invite its monitors was "regrettable" and "not in line with" American commitments. Pere Joan Pons, president of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, called it "a significant departure from an established democratic practice."

The State Department's stated position is that the OSCE "should focus its limited resources on elections where it can have the greatest impact." Human Rights Watch said it wrote to the department for comment and had not received a reply.

The OSCE did observe the 2018 midterms under Trump's first term and issued a 38-page report. Its 2024 assessment called that election "well-run."

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called the decision "unprecedented." Dan Baer, a U.S. ambassador to the OSCE under Barack Obama, said refusing observers "is usually something that countries in a position of weakness do." Human Rights Watch's Philippe Bolopion said the administration is "mimicking" the behavior of Russia and others that dodge outside scrutiny.

The administration has been pressing the OSCE to change. Ambassador Darrell Owens, confirmed in June, has pushed to "reform, refocus, and refine" the organization, and the administration has previously threatened to quit it. Truthout reported the administration is also seeking to deploy 1,000 Justice Department monitors to poll sites. The administration has not detailed that plan in the material at hand.

The administration's own election-security push

The administration frames its election actions around fraud and security, and it has taken concrete steps.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency released a 13-page Election Infrastructure Security Plan on Sept. 24. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin tasked the agency with it in July and had said it would be out by mid-August. The plan warns of software flaws, voter-registration database hacks, insider threats and physical risks such as the bomb threats that hit some polling places in 2024.

It recommends paper ballots that can be easily reviewed. It also endorses long-standing practices: bipartisan teams of two handling ballots, observers present during counting, and chain-of-custody procedures. The plan names no specific 2026 threats from Russia, Iran or China.

In an Aug. 27 letter, Mullin wrote that parts of many U.S. voting machines are made in China and that components from "foreign adversaries introduce significant security risks." A White House task force fact sheet claimed China and its proxies bought, stole or hacked voter data on as many as 220 million Americans.

On the enforcement side, the Justice Department's illegal-voting crackdown now spans 17 states, per a Fox News map published Oct. 11. On Sept. 25, the Supreme Court granted the administration's emergency appeal and lifted a ruling that had barred the government from using the current version of DHS's SAVE database to verify voters' citizenship.

The tension is plain. The administration says it wants voters to trust the count and is moving against illegal voting. Critics, including Human Rights Watch, note that an administration focused on fraud turned away the outside body with expertise in exactly that issue. No verified evidence has been presented that ICE agents have been stationed at any polling place this cycle.

LUCHA has more in-person training sessions on its calendar. Whether any of its observers ever see an agent at a poll will begin to be answered in Arizona, where voters have been casting ballots since Oct. 7.