The Democrats intend to train tens of thousands of volunteers to monitor the polls and counter possible voter intimidation under a new plan to protect November’s US midterm elections from anticipated interference from Donald Trump and his allies. The nationwide initiative, dubbed the New Battlefield Project, will help state Democratic committees build up a vast coalition of volunteers to monitor the polls, push voters to cast their ballots early and create a network to respond to disinformation. The Association of State Democratic Committees (ASDC), an arm of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), plans to train volunteers across 57 states and territories.
It hopes to train volunteers for 25% of the nation’s 95,000 election day polling places, focusing on districts with competitive races. These volunteers will wear blue vests to provide a visible presence intended to counter any voter intimidation, including by federal agents. Each state party has a trained election protection director.
The Trump administration has not explicitly ruled out sending federal agents to cities during the election, and some of the president’s allies have called on him to send immigration agents to the polls. The homeland security secretary, Markwayne Mullin, previously said immigration agents’ job isn’t to patrol polling places, but they could go to polling places if there was a threat or to serve a warrant. The president has personally made a series of interventions that have fanned fears that he could meddle in the upcoming elections, and even declare a national emergency in a bid to exert greater control over the process.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
