Election Day is Tuesday, and many voters are still wondering what to expect when they go to the polls.
Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice announced plans to send election monitors to polling places around the country. Meanwhile, rumors are swirling about the possibility of immigration or other federal agents showing up.
But local voting rights advocates are still hoping for a “boring” Election Day.
“We’re prepared for whatever comes our way. We hope that we are prepared for a very boring Election Day tomorrow,” said Christina Beeler, senior counsel at Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights (CLCCR).
“But if anything were to happen, say for example voter intimidation or federal agents at the polls — which we don’t expect — we are prepared to take action,” Beeler said.
Beeler said federal law prohibits voter intimidation and federal agents going to polling places. Some organizations have already preemptively challenged the deployment of federal agents at the polls.
In preparation for Election Day, CLCCR and other voting rights advocacy groups in Chicago trained nonpartisan poll watchers to monitor compliance with the law at polling places. The organization will also be monitoring a hotline Tuesday for voters who have questions or concerns about voting rights.
The situation at polling places in Indiana might look different than in Chicago. Last month, the DOJ announced it would send election monitors to Marion County, which includes Indianapolis, as well as Lake County in northwest Indiana.
In a statement last month, officials with the Lake County Board of Elections said they met with DOJ officials and confirmed the monitors will be conducting voluntary exit interviews outside of polling locations focused on language barriers, disability access and provisional ballots.
Emily Shrock, senior counsel at CLCCR with a focus on voting rights in Indiana, said DOJ election monitors were part of the original Voting Rights Act as a way of preventing racial discrimination.
Shrock said local election officials she’s heard from are optimistic this year’s deployment of monitors will be the same. Still, she said changes to the DOJ under the Trump administration affect the context of the monitoring efforts.
“What we’re hearing about with this administration, unfortunately we are seeing a bit of a chilling effect just by them being present,” Shrock said.
This all comes after months of challenges to voting norms, including executive orders that were later struck down by the courts attempting to change mail-in voting rules and establish a federal list of registered voters.
“More recently, we’ve seen the Department of Justice move to intimidate local election officials by sending them different letters saying they’re going to be prosecuted basically for doing their job,” said Steven Schwinn, a law professor at the University of Illinois Chicago.
Schwinn said that over the weekend, a federal court in California issued a “landmark ruling” prohibiting the justice department from threatening or intimidating voters and election officials.
And while the buzz around these challenges can cause confusion, Schwinn said there are positive signs voters are still turning out.
“We’ve seen record-breaking turnout in early voting. … I’m hoping that voters are going to ignore the noise and nevertheless show up at the polls,” Schwinn said.
