Senate Republicans are training their own election observers to send to battleground states ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms, a spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told The Epoch Times, the first direct confirmation that Senate Republicans are running a program of their own.
Senate Democrats also announced on Oct. 14 that more than 100 Democratic Senate staffers had been recruited and trained as observers.
While declining to say how many observers Senate Republicans have recruited so far, the spokesperson said they fully expect their election efforts to be equivalent to the Democrats’ efforts.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on an Oct. 14 press call that the Democratic observers are preparing to deploy to key polling sites and postelection vote-counting centers in states with close Senate races. Their role, he told reporters, is “to observe, to document, and report the facts.”
Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), who leads the program with Schumer, said Democrats plan to send observers to nine states with contested Senate races—including Ohio, Georgia, and Michigan, where polls show some of the tightest contests, and that it could change before Election Day.
Padilla said on the call that he knew Republicans “have a similar effort on their side of the aisle.” He said both parties’ efforts are paid for with official Senate funds.
Padilla said Democrats hope to send observers out in bipartisan pairs where Republican staff are available. The Senate spokesperson for Thune told The Epoch Times the office had no comment on any bipartisan pair effort at this time.
The observers were trained by the same law firm that has trained House observers for years, Padilla stated on the call. They will remain through the canvass after Election Day, and longer if needed, he said.
Schumer said Democrats launched the program because they believe President Donald Trump wants to undermine the elections.
He pointed to Trump’s push to limit mail-in voting, his executive orders on elections, and the SAVE America Act—which Senate Democrats have repeatedly blocked. Supporters of the bill, including Trump and House Republicans, say it is needed to ensure that only U.S. citizens vote and to protect elections against fraud.
White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis said in a statement to The Epoch Times on Wednesday that Democrats are keeping Americans from having full confidence in their elections by refusing to vote for the SAVE America Act. She said the bill would enact election security measures such as voter ID and ensure that only Americans elect the country’s leaders.
“President Trump has done more than any other President to ensure we have free and fair elections,” Bis said.
She said the administration is prosecuting election crimes, strengthening election infrastructure security, and protecting vulnerable voters from fraud and coercion.
A White House official pointed to the Justice Department’s plans to deploy 1,000 election monitors to polling places on Election Day and to recent federal charges for illegal voting.
The official also cited the Department of Homeland Security’s 2026 election infrastructure security plan, which offers free cyber and physical security services to state and local election offices.
Schumer and Padilla launched the program on June 25 as part of the Senate Democrats’ Election Protection Task Force, which the minority leader and other Democrats formed in April. It trains Senate staff to document attempted voter interference, threats against election workers, and what the senators called misinformation and disinformation, according to Padilla’s office. Observers are barred from handling ballots, counting votes, advocating for candidates, or interfering with election officials.
The Senate program is modeled on one the House has run for decades through the Committee on House Administration. The House program deployed more than 75 observers to 67 congressional districts on Election Day in 2024, according to the committee. Observers there are typically deployed in bipartisan pairs, according to an October 2024 letter from committee Chairman Rep. Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) and ranking member Rep. Joseph Morelle (D-N.Y.).
The Confirmation of Congressional Observer Access Act, signed by President Joe Biden on Oct. 4, 2024, confirmed the authority of the chairs and ranking members of the House Administration Committee and the Senate Rules and Administration Committee to designate congressional observers. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) chairs the Senate Rules Committee, and Padilla is its ranking Democratic member.
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