Poll watchers in demand in Illinois
Political parties prep thousands to cover state Nov. 3
Both political parties are preparing thousands of volunteers to fan out to polling places across Illinois on Nov. 3, the culmination of an election season in which President Donald Trump has repeatedly cast doubt on the integrity of the vote, stirring fear and anxiety across the political spectrum.
Granted special access to polling places to watch for irregularities, partisan poll watchers are an Election Day staple in Illinois. But this year’s highly contentious presidential race between Trump and Democratic challenger former Vice President Joe Biden, along with the push for more people to vote bymail during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, has both parties on high alert.
Nationally, the Republican Party reportedly has plans to recruit and train 50,000 poll watchers, and the Trump campaign has asked people to “enlist” in the “Army for Trump’s election security operation,” with Donald Trump Jr. warning in a Twitter video last month that “the radical left are laying the groundwork to steal this election frommy father.”
What the Republican efforts will look like in Illinois remains unclear.
State GOP spokesman Joe Hackler declined an interview request about the party’s poll-watching plans, writing in an email that “you’re kind of asking us to publish in an article our campaign playbook in this area” and referring questions to Republican leaders at the county level.
Illinois Democrats, meanwhile, are redoubling their efforts in light of the heated rhetoric coming out of the Trump campaign, despite the fact that no Republican presidential candidate haswon the state since George H.W. Bush in 1988.
This is the first year the Democratic Party of Illinois has recruited and trained poll watchers across the state as part of its Election Day efforts, having relied on individual campaigns to do the work in past elections. Statewide, the party is trying to recruit 2,000 to 3,000 volunteers to observe at polling places on Election Day.
“Are the Republicans really going to focus on Illinois when they’ve got Michigan and Wisconsin and Ohio and all those other states in play?” said Mary Morrissey, executive director of the Democratic Party of Illinois. “I think the answer to that is ‘yes.’ ”
In particular, Morrissey said she sees the “hotly contested” rematch between Republican U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis of Taylorville and Democrat Betsy Dirksen Londrigan of Springfield as “an area where the Republican Party and national Republicans would focus some energy on trying to minimize the losses of seats in the November election in Congress.”
Not to be confused with election judges, who check in voters, answer questions and distribute ballots at polling places, poll watchers are volunteers from political parties, civic organizations, and candidate or ballot measure committees who are granted access by local election officials to observe the voting process and raise objections to any potential irregularities.
In Illinois, poll watchers must be registered to vote and affiliated with the party, organization or candidate they are representing. Either the State Board of Elections or the pollwatcher’s local election authority issues his or her credentials, which the volunteers must present to election judges as they first enter the polling place.
Once inside the polling place, a poll watcher’s main role is to observe— they are prohibited from touching any election supplies or materials. They can make sure ballot boxes are empty before the polls open, and watch the election judges as they examine ballots, verify voters’ signatures, initial and distribute ballots, and collect completed ballots from voters. They also can observe the ballot-counting procedures after the polls close.
As part of their role, poll watchers maintain the right to challenge a person’s right to vote— if, for instance, the person moved or voted earlier in the day. The reason must be stated and evaluated by the election judges, who will decide whether to sustain the challenge.
Illinois caps the number of pollwatchers allowed per polling place, with parties and candidates allowed two per precinct and other organizations one per precinct. Election judges also can limit the number of poll watchers in the polling place or remove any volunteers causing disruptions.
Democrats across the country are especially wary this year because it’s the first presidential election since a federal judge in New Jersey lifted a long-running consent decree that required the Republican National Committee to get prior approval for its pollwatching activities.
The decree stemmed from a 1982 lawsuit that accused the RNC and the New Jersey GOP of intimidating voters in the governor’s race the previous year, including by stationing armed, off-duty law enforcement officers near polling places in minority neighborhoods.
Nationally, the court ruling has “kind of unbridled the Republicans,” Morrissey said.
It’s unclear how many poll watchers Republicans will have in the field on Nov. 3, but Cook County Republican Party Chairman Sean Morrison said the GOP plans to have “thousands” statewide.
“We will have a robust poll-watching effort as we would regardless of President Trump’s pronouncements,” Morrison said.
Morrison said it was “well past time” for the consent decree to be dissolved, allowing the RNC to “participate alongside local organizations like ours in basic Election Day and poll watcher activities.”
Coordination with the RNC is “coordinated by our lead council and state party,” Morrison said.
Morrissey, the Democratic Party director, said the training for the party’s poll watchers — conducted remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic — “has a great emphasis on cooperation, collaboration in the polling place.”
“Don’t escalate if there’s some issue,” she said. “Escalate it to our boiler room.”
Those “boiler rooms” will be staffed by attorneys who will field calls from poll watchers and address any issues that arise at poling places. The Democrats plan to have a central boiler room as well as some regional operations.
Morrison, the Cook County Republican Party chairman, said the party also is staffing up with more attorneys to handle issues on Election Day and during early voting.
“Our aim is simple,” he said. “To ensure that all votes cast are cast legally, and that the election be conducted in a transparent way, so that everyone can have confidence in the outcome.”
DuPage County Republican Party Chairman Jim Zay said his organization will draw on its precinct committeemen and some volunteers to monitor the polls on Election Day, although it could be in the form of spot checks at some polling places rather than having poll watchers present throughout the day.
Other than slow returns, elections in the onetime GOP stronghold have had few problems over the years, Zay said.
“I don’t think … you’re going to see people coming in dropping off boxes of ballots or people standing out with palm cards in front of polling places,” Zay added. “You don’t see that style of politics here in DuPage.”