Senate Democrats Will Train Their Own Staff to Watch the Polls in 2026

Senate Democrats said Thursday they will train their own staff to work as official observers at polling places during the 2026 midterm elections, a program they say is the first of its kind in the chamber.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and Sen. Alex Padilla of California, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, announced the Election Observer Program at a press conference in Washington. The program will recruit volunteer Senate staff, put them through training on election law and procedure, and send them to states with Senate races on the ballot.

According to the senators, the observers will document attempts at voter interference, threats against election workers, and what the lawmakers described as misinformation and disinformation, both on Election Day and during the post-election canvass and certification. Schumer said the observers will not count votes, run elections, handle ballots or equipment, or advocate for any candidate.

"We're not waiting for the chaos to arrive. We're preparing now," Schumer said at the press conference, according to NOTUS.

What the program does

The senators described the effort as nonpartisan, official, and noninterfering. Staff who volunteer will get mandatory training before Election Day covering election administration procedures, election law, documentation standards, conduct at polling sites, and the rules barring observers from interfering with election officials.

Padilla said the locations have not been set, and that the focus will be close races. "We haven't finalized or decided on the specific locations, but I'm sure one of the biggest considerations will be where we anticipate close contests," he said, according to NOTUS. "Because that's where even a little bit of interference, intimidation, harassment can have a disproportionate effect on election results and the election outcomes."

The observers' assignment, as the senators laid it out, has three parts: gather on-the-ground information about Senate elections to help the chamber handle any contested results; record any instances of voter interference, threats against election workers, or election misinformation; and inform future legislation and oversight on federal election administration.

The program is an outgrowth of the Election Protection Task Force that Senate Democrats created in April. Senate staff told NOTUS the task force plans to recruit and train volunteers over the next couple of months, with observers focused on Senate races in the general election.

The legal basis

The Senate program is modeled on one the House has run for decades. Both rest on the Confirmation of Congressional Observer Access Act, known as the COCOA Act, which Congress passed in October 2024. That law affirmed that the chair and ranking members of the House Administration Committee and the Senate Rules and Administration Committee can designate congressional election observers.

Padilla framed the move as an assertion of congressional authority over federal elections. "If the federal government's going to have a say in the time, place and manner in which elections are being held, that lies with Congress, not the executive branch," he said, according to NOTUS.

The backdrop

The announcement lands in the middle of a running fight between Democrats and President Trump over how elections are run. Schumer and Padilla said the program is a response to actions by Trump, who has pressed for more federal control over elections, backed the SAVE America Act requiring documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote, and signed an executive order seeking to change how states handle mail and absentee voting. A federal judge this week blocked the core of that order for the states that sued. The administration has also threatened to withhold Department of Homeland Security funding from states that do not adopt changes Trump has demanded.

Trump has characterized Democratic election efforts in the opposite terms. He has accused Democrats of trying to "suppress Republican voters" and "interfere in our Elections," and has argued since 2024 that who counts the votes matters as much as who casts them.

Republicans are running their own operation

Both parties are fielding election operations for the midterms. The Republican National Committee said it has launched a multimillion-dollar "election integrity" push, hiring directors in 17 battleground states, including Arizona, Georgia and Michigan, to recruit poll workers, poll watchers and election observers and to coordinate legal and Election Day oversight.

"We're building a ground game across the country with poll workers, poll watchers and lawyers to protect every legal ballot," RNC Chairman Joe Gruters said in a statement to Fox News Digital. Gruters described the committee's effort as "disciplined and ruthless" and said the directors would be the legal "eyes and ears on every vote cast and counted" in the battlegrounds.

The two programs differ in who they deploy. The Democratic effort uses Senate staff acting as congressional observers under the COCOA Act and is aimed at Senate races. The RNC effort is a party field operation built around poll watchers and lawyers across battleground states.

What happens next

Senate Democrats said volunteer recruiting and training will run over the coming months, with deployment at the general election in November. Specific states and polling places have not been announced.