Senate Dems will send over 100 election observers to nine states for midterms

With the threat of federal election interference looming large over the midterms, Senate Democrats plan to send more than 100 congressional staff to observe voting sites in nine states — the first program of its kind for the upper chamber.  

Observers trained as part of the Senate Election Observer Program — which launched in June — will be on the ground to document voter interference efforts, along with threats against election workers, disinformation tactics and any other attempts to meddle with voting on Election Day and during the postelection period. 

President Donald Trump has “made clear that he wants to ‘take over the voting’ in state-run elections,” Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), the ranking member on the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, said in a statement. “Election interference is unconstitutional and illegal and Congress will be watching… We’re taking this step to ensure that any attempt to interfere with the right to vote is documented, exposed and met with accountability.”

“Donald Trump is trying to steal the election – but Democrats and the American people won’t let him,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) added in a statement. “Our elections are free and secure, but we cannot take that for granted.”

Congressional observers are not new, but it’s usually the U.S. House of Representatives that sends them to monitor voting throughout the country. Congress has the constitutional authority to send observers, but the 2024 Confirmation of Congressional Observer Access Act codified and clarified the rules governing its observer program. 

The new law allowed the Senate to establish its own election observer programs, which is run by the Senate Rules Committee. Senate Republicans are also planning to send their own observers to polling sites in November. 

Democrats’ decision to deploy Senate observers comes amid heightened fears that Trump will exploit his office to interfere in the voting process. Despite the Constitution explicitly granting control of election administration to the states, not the president, many Trump allies have pushed for the president to take over voting. 

Trump, members of his administration and key figures in the MAGA movement have floated the possibility of sending armed law enforcement to the polls, seizing ballots and voting equipment and conducting mass voter purges. 

The U.S. Department of Justice is also planning to deploy 1,000 election monitors to election sites across the country. 

And with local Democratic and GOP groups, civil rights groups and many nonpartisan organizations set to send thousands of their own lawful observers, the midterms are shaping up to be the most-watched election in U.S. history.