Election Protection volunteers are needed to prevent voter intimidation

Election Protection volunteers will have an elevated role in preventing voter intimidation during the upcoming midterm elections.

“They [Election Protection volunteers] are protecting voters and voters’ opportunities to cast their ballots,” said Iris Meltzer, the board president of the League of Women Voters of Ohio. “A piece of what the mission is is to make democracy work.”

However, some people are volunteering to harm democracy. 

The Republican National Committee (RNC) is recruiting people from election conspiracy groups to work the polls to intimidate voters, according to Reuters. Over 52,000 poll observers and volunteers are expected to have been trained by the RNC between last November and the upcoming election. 

Some common examples of voter intimidation include: asking voters about their citizenship and/or criminal record, telling voters false voter requirements (i.e. an ability to speak English is needed to vote) and displaying untrue signs about fraudulent voting, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Voter intimidation is prohibited under federal law. 

If Election Protection volunteers see their co-volunteers or people at the polls intimidating voters, they can report it to the Election Protection Hotline at 1-866-OUR-VOTE or 1-888-VE-Y-VOTA (en Español).

The hotline is managed by command center volunteers. 

“Command center volunteers are very well-trained people who monitor the election protection hotline in order to ensure that election problems are resolved by the Boards of Elections officials,” Meltzer said. 

There are many ways people can sign up to become Election Protection volunteers. 

“You go to any one of the websites, including Common Cause, the Election Protection website, or the League of Women Voters website,” Meltzer said. “You will find something that says click here to volunteer for election protection.”

Election Protection volunteers are supposed to assist voters outside of polling locations. 

“In 2020, I was an election protection volunteer at the polls,” Meltzer said. “I did things like show people where they could park, direct people who couldn’t walk into the polls towards the couple of parking spaces where they could get two poll workers from inside to come help them vote.”

Often, Election Protection volunteers have to answer simple questions to help voters. 

“I was at a polling place on Election Day in 2020 and a couple drove up and said this isn’t our polling place this year, but it’s where we’ve always voted,” Meltzer said. “Can we vote here? The answer was no. It’s just a matter of walking them through. If you want your vote to count, you better go to this other place.” 

The opportunity to be an Election Protection volunteer allows Americans to protect democracy.