Aly Belknap with Colorado Common Cause leads a poll monitor training in Denver on Oct. 9, 2026. Around 50 Coloradans gathered in a conference room down the street from the state Capitol on Friday morning to become trained poll monitors ahead of the midterm elections, a subset of the 1,000 volunteers statewide who plan to observe polling sites and dropboxes as part of a pro-democracy effort.
“We’re obviously nonpartisan. We’re there to report any issues,” Luana Charnes, a senior organizing manager with Common Cause, told trainees. “We’re also there as a community. You’re most likely going to volunteer in a county you live in, your local library, your neighborhood school down the road, and be that friendly face.”
Colorado Common Cause is part of the Just Vote Colorado assistance project that is seeking to station volunteers at polling locations around the state. The goal is to support voters, maintain a positive environment and report and document any issues at the site, such as lengthy lines, inaccessible entrances, high numbers of provisional ballots or students being told they can’t vote.
Organized, nonpartisan poll monitoring in the state is nothing new, but organizations say they are training more volunteers than before. Participation in Colorado Common Cause’s program is up from 300 volunteers two years ago.
“Just Vote Colorado is prepared to protect every eligible person’s right to vote from unfair barriers and intimidation so they have an equal say in decisions impacting their lives,” Aly Belknap, Colorado Common Cause’s executive director, said in a statement. “We’re here to send a clear message to the federal administration desperately trying to prevent people from voting to hang on to their power: Hands off our vote.”
People at the training learned about Colorado’s election laws, how to help voters facing issues using a national hotline and how to report concerning activity, such as intimidation or federal immigration enforcement. The goal isn’t for poll monitors to de-escalate conflict, Belknap said, but to have resources and confidence on how to navigate specific situations.
It is Judith White’s first time volunteering as a poll monitor, though the Denver resident has previously done other election-related activities like phone banking and is part of the left-leaning Indivisible movement. She said she’s alarmed by reports of armed guards at postal facilities and conflicting announcements from the federal government over whether U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will be near polling sites.
“This feels like it’s adding a presence of force, rather than supportive protection,” she said. “We have to understand that maybe it’s all for the drama, but even the announcement that there’s this forceful presence is enough for people to say ‘Maybe not this year.’ Anything that disrupts your planned vote means you’re less likely to vote.”
She recalls experiences growing up in the American South and the region’s history of racial voter suppression. “It can happen in lots of ways,” she said. “You can distort an election by keeping eligible voters from voting.”
“They want to silence our voices,”
