I was encouraged to tell my story about the election worker/voter intimidation I experienced on Tuesday while I worked the polls in Michigan. So here goes… I volunteered to be an election inspector in my state of Michigan. This was my first time. I worked with others on my team from 6am — 9:30pm. In my training I learned about the role of challengers - who they are, what they do, and what rules they have to follow. These are people who officially represent a sanctioned body, and are allowed to challenge any voter/ballot if there is evidence of ineligibilities due to age, residency, or citizenship. In any case, I worked one of the smaller precincts in a fairly blue part of the state. We had a line during the pre-work hours, but as the day went on, it was a steady trickle. Two-thirds of the people in this precinct had requested absentee (“early vote by mail”) ballots. It’s a racially diverse precinct with many white people and many people of color; lots of young people (college age).
Each election inspector team has a chair and co-chair (of opposite parties), and if any issues arise with voting it was addressed by representatives of both parties together. I felt really positive about our team. We all seemed to really care that anyone who could vote had the opportunity to, and felt welcomed and safe to do so. Some of the joys of the day include the large number of first time voters we had, the voters who persisted through problems they faced as they checked in to vote even though in some cases it meant having to leave to go to the city clerks office but still coming back to vote, and the knowledge that people of both parties really could work together to create as fair and welcoming a space for people to vote.
However, despite the efforts of our team, we faced some major problems in creating that fair and welcoming space. Let’s get back to the challengers. Early in the day a challenger representing the Michigan GOP showed up (let’s call her, just for the sake of it, Karen). Karen was then later accompanied by a second challenger, also representing the Michigan GOP (let’s call him Maren or Mike P for short).
Challengers are not allowed to speak to voters, interrupt the work of inspectors, and only one person can challenge any given voter/ballot at any given time. They must wear masks and follow social distance protocols among other rules.
One of the more complicated situations we faced was people who came in to vote because they never received their ballot in the mail. No surprise, this happened alot. There is protocol in place for addressing that. At the initial check-in station (where I worked) the voter fills out an affidavit, indicates the ballot was not received in the mail, signs it, and then an inspector signs it. The voter then takes the affidavit to the next station, which is the one with the computers, where people are then looked up and checked in the system and assigned a ballot. However, at this point, after the person is looked up in the system and confirmed to be there, the Chair of the precinct has to call the City Clerk’s office to check/confirm absentee ballot status, ensure a new ballot can be issued, document process, etc. etc. This has to happen because our local systems are off-line; and also adds the needed extra layers of assurances for a fair vote. Assuming that all goes to plan, the person can then receive their ballot and go to the booth to vote. If not, they are denied a ballot.
We began to notice that Karen would stand up and basically hover behind us (not at all using the 6 foot social distance rule) when a voter needed to complete an affidavit. She would watch the process, furiously writing notes (who knows what went into those notes). Then as the person would walk to the next station, she would walk to the next station too, following them, and actively question the process as the inspectors and chair were trying to work with the voter. Many times, when the chair was on the phone with the clerk, or in conversation with the voter, the challenger would interrupt. The chair needed to keep stating, do not interrupt. This is in clear violation. This happened over and over. Karen would then run out the room making phone calls run back in scribbling notes and pick up where the process left off and some times nearly stare down the voter as they put their ballot into the tabulator.
Karen also would get up and do the same things to voters who didn’t have absentee ballot problems. We noticed she did this more frequently for people of color and the young people than white people or older people. Her actions of looking at the voter (basically staring down), writing notes, closely following them through the process, all while hovering right behind us, was simply intimidating. Then when Mike P. showed up they would talk furiously with each other, as they took notes, and sometimes send hand signals to each other, as they stared at the voters and at us. Karen and Mike didn’t actually officially challenge more than a few ballots — that's because we did our job well and the voters were really just trying to vote fairly. But the challengers questioned the process over and over (which felt like a challenge), and talked and used their bodies in ways that intimidated. The process also very much slowed down the voter’s experience. We didn't have long lines, I can only imagine if we did.
When we asked her to follow the social distancing rules she said she didn’t have to, even though the printed poll book clearly stated the rules. She said, if I stand 6 feet away I won’t be able to hear what you are saying to voters. When we indicated that only one person could challenge at a time, they indicated that they were following that rule. Different interpretations of what one challenger means, I guess.
This might not sound like much, but it created such a friction in the room. Especially at the table with the computer records, where most of the calls to the clerk needed to happen. Several inspectors vocally indicated they didn’t feel safe; they felt intimidated as she stared down our every move. She made it really hard for us to concentrate on helping the voter. If I were a voter, especially a first time voter, I would be intimidated, too. What is she writing? Who is she calling? As the tension escalated, and the challengers continued to refuse to follow the rules, despite repeated requests from our chair, the chair called our city clerk for official help. When the chair told us official help was coming, Karen disappeared. She just left. Only Mike P stayed. Mike P denied everything when questioned by officials in a sweet sing song sort of way. Then, plain clothes police showed up to ensure we were safe. I later learned that these tactics were used across the state, but particularly in the cities, and Detroit was especially targeted.
So the upshot is that I thought we had a great team of folks from both sides of the aisle, and in so far as our efforts were concerned the process worked as well as we could get it to. However, the challenger role was exploited by the Michigan GOP in a clearly pre-planned way across the state to cause intimidation at the polls. I personally felt a lot of anxiety.