Fraud Fears Reshape Poll Watchers’ Focus

For the 2026 midterms, Justice Department observers are in, while international observers are out. Turn any article into a podcast. Upgrade now to start listening. Members can share articles with friends & family to bypass the paywall. To vote in colonial America, men stood in front of their neighbors, political party representatives, and often candidates themselves to announce their choice aloud. This practice of viva voce voting endured in some states until 1872, at which point paper ballots became the norm. Today, state election codes preserve the tradition of open access for election observers, meaning that voters are likely to see a number of silent, clipboard-carrying observers standing in the corner of their local gymnasium voting center next Tuesday. Want to see more of The Dispatch in Google search? Add Us as a Preferred Source Mark Sawyer is a reporter for The Dispatch based in Washington, D.C., and the inaugural Journalism Excellence Fellow through The Fund for American Studies. He previously worked as an investigator and open-source intelligence analyst focused on a range of issues including election integrity, national security, and Russia's use of disinformation and the internet to pursue its foreign policy goals. His favorite professional experiences have been serving as an election observer in Ukraine and Moldova. When Mark is not going down rabbit holes for his latest article, you can probably find him experimenting in the kitchen, birdwatching in the city, or convincing his unsuspecting friends to play a complicated board game. More We Think You’d Like