Election Challengers

In recent years, Election Day challenges to voter eligibility have resulted in a number of controversies in polling places across the country. Though the underlying rationale of challenger statutes is to protect the integrity of elections by preventing voter fraud, challengers have the potential to deter qualified voters by causing substantial delay and confusion in polling places. Where challenges are used improperly, they can have the effect of intimidating voters and disrupting polling place procedures, which has more than a negative effect on the challenged voter. Aggressive challenger activity inevitably leads to distracted pollworkers. With plenty of other earnest Election Day problems to attend to (e.g. broken voting machines, voters missing from the voter rolls, and voter intimidation), a series of baseless challenges can easily set the tone for other election day pitfalls. This formula for Election Day chaos - long lines, confusion, and wrongful denial of voting privileges - can quickly spread in polling places where election officials have failed to properly prepare pollworkers. Read more.