Texas poll watchers emboldened by GOP-backed law raise fears of voter intimidation

In Texas, the midterm elections may mark the coming out of a new kind of partisan poll watcher—one who’s been newly empowered by expansive rights bestowed upon them by a Republican-sponsored voting law passed last year.

The law, SB1, allows partisan poll watchers to observe (and lodge complaints about) a broad set of election processes, including early voting, Election Day voting, voter signature reviews, and vote counting and tabulation. 

While poll watchers are never allowed to talk directly to voters, the law allows them to stand close enough to “see and hear” interactions between poll workers and voters. Election workers who obstruct the view or limit the movements of a poll watcher can be charged with a misdemeanor and do up to a year in jail.

SB1 allows each candidate, party, or proposal sponsor to appoint two poll watchers to observe within each polling place. Crucially, poll watchers in Texas polling places can object to any voting activity they “reasonably believe” might be fraudulent. But “reasonable” may mean different things to different people.

“The law also has not been litigated, so we have no chance to have a fair say in what is reasonable for these people’s behavior,” says Dana DeBeauvoir, former veteran elections director of Travis County, Texas, who now sits on the board of directors at the election integrity think tank the OSET Institute. “So far, many of these poll watchers have made it clear that they don’t intend to be reasonable. Now, whether that’s going to turn out to be reality, or if that’s just fast talk, we don’t know yet.”

Critics of the bill fear that, in practice, the increased presence of poll watchers will create an intimidating environment for some voters, especially those who might require assistance from poll workers, such as non-English speakers, voters with disabilities, or the elderly. (Voter intimidation is illegal under federal law.)

Emboldened to intimidate

This election season has already given us a preview of voter intimidation. In Arizona, people affiliated with the group Clean Elections USA were observed monitoring ballot drop boxes, taking photos of voters and their vehicles, and even following them in the cars. Last month, this prompted two lawsuits, and a judge very quickly ruled that members of the group must stay 75 feet away from drop boxes and can no longer take photos or videos of voters to spread baseless allegations of electoral fraud.

Texas’s SB1 may create its own dangers, as it leaves ambiguous the question of whether or not the state’s permissive gun laws apply to polling places, according to DeBeauvoir. “The governor signed the law that allows people to open carry, no permit required,” DeBeauvoir says. “Well, we haven’t litigated whether that means inside the polling place, so what are we going to do when some guy walks in the polling place with a long gun?”

SB1 may also increase the air of suspicion that already exists around elections in red states. Polling shows that a majority of Republicans still believe widespread fraud occurred during the 2020 election, and that President Biden was not the rightful winner. This is despite the fact that after millions was spent on audits and lawsuits, Trump’s supporters and “Stop the Steal” true believers have failed to produce evidence of systematic fraud that could have affected the result of the election. (Trump won Texas by 5.6 points.)   

The Republican Party, meanwhile, has made it a priority to recruit thousands of poll watchers to be present at polling stations in battleground states. The push started at the national level: One-time Trump adviser Steve Bannon said the following on his popular podcast: “We’re going to be there and enforce those rules, and we’ll challenge any vote, any ballot, and you’re going to have to live with it, OK?”

The GOP in Texas began a push to recruit poll watchers last year, with party officials aiming for two poll watchers at every voting site, especially those in urban centers with larger percentages of minority voters.

Common Cause Texas obtained and leaked a video in which a Republican official in Harris County, Texas, can be seen saying that his party wants to recruit 10,000 party members to form an “election integrity brigade” in Houston. In particular, the man says the party needs volunteers to observe voting in Houston’s racially diverse urban core—party volunteers with “the confidence and courage to come down here,” the official says, adding “this is where the fraud is occurring.” 

To make matters more tense, the Texas Secretary of State office announced that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will be sending a “task force” to Harris County, the state’s most populous county, to respond to any “legal issues” stemming from the midterms. An investigation by ProPublica found that Paxton’s office has, over the past two years, launched no fewer than 10 investigations into crimes by election workers, most of which were related to obstructing poll watchers. 

The Republican Party of Texas did not respond to emails from Fast Company requesting information about its poll watcher recruitment activities. A spokesman for the Texas GOP returned a telephone call but quickly hung up after being asked about the group’s poll watcher recruiting tactics.

A solution in search of a problem 

The widespread (and unfounded) belief that U.S. elections are wracked with fraud gave Republican state legislatures a pretext for passing laws that restrict voting access and increase partisan scrutiny of election workers. 

“I think it’s important for election laws to be put on the books to deal with problems that really exist,” says Alice Huling, an attorney for the voting-rights group Campaign Legal Center, “as opposed to election laws that ultimately could serve to limit the efficiency of conducting an election for problems that maybe have been given wind but aren’t necessarily problems. We’ve seen the result of some of that in places, and so some of these provisions could be that.” 

Huling makes clear that poll watchers who are there for the right reasons (democracy) can play an important role and increase confidence in the voting process. She also says that there will be people present in Texas polling places—other than voters and election workers—to monitor the impact of SB1 on the conduct of poll watchers.

“There will certainly be a lot of folks who will be engaged in trying to make sure that this extension of leeway to poll watchers that’s been given isn’t putting anything in the way of efficiently and fairly conducting elections,” she says.