Approximately 60 residents attended a Boyle Heights training on recognizing, documenting and reporting possible voter suppression. Participants were taught to encourage voters to remain in line, understand their First Amendment rights and report problems through appropriate channels. About 20 attendees signed up to monitor polling locations as neighborhood vote protectors. Similar trainings are being organized elsewhere in California.
Democracy & Elections/Voting
Nonpartisan Voter Education/Engagement/Support
Nonpartisan Election Observer/Monitor
Activists gathered petition signatures to place voter-identification proposals before voters in California, Colorado and Nevada, bypassing legislatures that had not enacted their preferred policies. The California effort alone submitted enough signatures to qualify a constitutional amendment for the November ballot.
Democracy & Elections/Voting
Coalition Building/Community Organizing
Ballot Initiative or Referendum Campaign/Signature Gathering
The Missouri Voter Protection Coalition trains hundreds of volunteers to observe polling places and staffs the nonpartisan 866-OUR-VOTE hotline with attorneys and legal professionals. Volunteers help voters address accessibility barriers, misinformation, intimidation, identification questions and other problems while relaying operational issues to election officials.
Democracy & Elections/Voting
Coalition Building/Community Organizing
Nonpartisan Voter Education/Engagement/Support
Nonpartisan Election Observer/Monitor
Students at a public high school helped operate an early-voting site inside their school as part of a civic initiative. Dozens of students were trained and certified as election judges through the Defenders of Da’mocracy program, taking responsibility for checking in voters, issuing ballots and helping administer the voting process. Eligible students and school employees also cast ballots at the site. Created by the Cook County clerk in partnership with the Chicago Bears, the program expanded to 27 suburban high schools in 2026. A previous iteration trained 126 students at 24 schools and recorded 1,136 voters, many of them students. The initiative combines easier voting access with firsthand instruction in how elections are administered
Democracy & Elections/Voting
Civic Initiative
Civic Education/Engagement
Other3
Approximately 50 residents attended a nonpartisan poll-monitor training near the state Capitol. They learned Colorado election law, how to assist voters through a national hotline and how to document or report intimidation, immigration enforcement and other problems. They are part of an anticipated statewide network of approximately 1,000 volunteers.
Democracy & Elections/Voting
Nonpartisan Election Observer/Monitor
Observe New Mexico Elections recruited 45 nonpartisan citizen volunteers to observe the state’s June primary. Volunteers monitored voting-machine certification, poll-worker training, absentee and in-person voting, vote counting and results certification across all 33 counties.
Their report characterized the election as generally orderly and well administered but identified specific concerns. Most notably, observers reported that poll workers at one rural location required voters to present identification even though New Mexico law generally does not require it. The organization recommended updated training to bring local procedures into compliance with state law.
Democracy & Elections/Voting
Nonpartisan Election Observer/Monitor
An anonymous government employee whistleblower came forward to a U.S. Senator, warning that a proposed effort by the U.S. Postal Service to implement the President's mail-in ballot executive order risks a failure of the election system that could erroneously disenfranchise millions of mail-in voters. The whistleblower is described as someone with direct knowledge of the development of the USPS' new electronic federal mail ballot portal.
Democracy & Elections/Voting
Reporting Government Wrongdoing/Neglect
A broad range of interfaith leaders across 8 states are using places of worship as "democracy hubs" to gather signatures for letters urging public officials to pledge to protect fair voter access. They also plan to provide non-partisan voter education and registration assistance, and voting support.
Democracy & Elections/Voting
Coalition Building/Community Organizing
Nonpartisan Voter Education/Engagement/Support
Letter-Writing Campaign
