Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and Sen. Alex Padilla of California say more than 100 Democratic Senate staff members have been recruited and trained to observe this year's congressional elections.
The senators announced Wednesday that staff are expected to deploy to polling and vote-counting sites across nine states. The release did not identify those states or confirm any assignment in New York, and it described deployment plans as tentative.
The program is intended to document potential voter interference, threats to election workers and other problems during voting, canvassing and certification, the senators said. It builds on an election observer initiative FingerLakes1 reported in September; the newly reported development is the recruitment and training of staff.
The 2024 federal law governing congressional election observers allows designated staff to observe election administration for congressional races. It bars them from handling ballots or equipment, advocating for a candidate, compromising ballot secrecy or interfering with voters or election officials.
Schumer and Padilla framed the effort as a response to concerns about election interference and the Trump administration. Those concerns are the senators' characterization; the announcement did not document a specific incident tied to the planned deployments. The senators said Republicans are also launching an observer program under the same law.
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