Students voting Tuesday may notice increased numbers of election monitors at polling stations around campus as part of an effort to combat voter intimidation.
Many organizations are worried the emphasis placed on preventing voter fraud in this year’s election will increase the likelihood of voter intimidation practices. Conservative, liberal-leaning and independent groups are dispatching lawyers and law students to monitor polling places across the country to assuage this fear and to assist with other Election Day issues, according to the Associated Press.
Election monitors typically represent a candidate or organization at polling places. They are not allowed to interfere with precinct activities or sway voters in any way, but instead are present to help protect voter rights.
On Friday, the U.S. Department of Justice said it would send more than 780 federal employees to oversee voting practices in 23 states. Since the 1965 Voting Rights Act was passed, the department has dispatched observers to election sites to protect against discriminatory practices.
In addition to gathering information on whether or not polling centers are following legal voting procedures, the Justice Department poll observers work to ensure that voters are able to understand the ballots if English isn’t their first language.
“To assist in these inquiries, the department has deployed observers and monitors who speak Spanish and a variety of Asian and Native American languages,” the department said in a press release.
University Law Prof. Margo Schlanger wrote in an e-mail that the Obama campaign has trained hundreds of lawyers and law students to monitor polling sites, including in Ann Arbor, to ensure eligible voters cast ballots correctly.
“Student voters often run into identification and other complicated voting issues,” Schlanger wrote. “Poll watchers can help sort out those kinds of problems.”
According to the Brennan Center for Justice, a non-partisan public policy institute at the New York University School of Law, poll monitors and other partisan observers cannot challenge a student’s ability to vote. Only official poll workers can question a student’s residency.
Because students are able to select their voting residency, they are unlikely to be challenged. However, if questioned by the election inspector, students can answer questions to prove their eligibility, which the inspector will then approve or reject.
Students may find themselves particularly susceptible to voting issues because of Michigan’s identification law. Every voter must display an acceptable form of photo identification, such as a driver’s license or passport, in order to vote. However, there is no address requirement, enabling out-of-state students to vote without issue.
Students without a photo ID can sign an affidavit of identity. MCards are also an acceptable form of ID.
If students feel monitors are intimidating or influencing their vote in any way, they should contact an election inspector.