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Voters may see some new faces at the polls this year - poll chaplains, clergy from multiple faith traditions who volunteer to be a calming presence. And they're being called up as elected officials face historically high levels of threats and harassment, with fears of a spillover onto election workers and voters. Maayan Silver from member station WUWM in Milwaukee reports.
MAAYAN SILVER, BYLINE: For a few years now, faith groups have stationed poll chaplains during elections in Wisconsin and other swing states where a small number of votes could make a big difference. Since 2020, the Wisconsin Council of Churches and the Wisconsin Interfaith Voter Engagement Campaign, or WIVEC, have run a poll chaplain project. And they have been getting ready for this year's midterms.
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SILVER: Reverend Breanna Illene is unpacking neon-yellow caps and purple vests.
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BREANNA ILLENE: So each poll chaplain will wear a vest, just as a kind of identifier of, hey, we're doing something semi-official.
SILVER: Illene says there's lots of effort these days by politicians and others to change rules and influence how elections go.
ILLENE: Our goal is to be this trusted on-the-ground set of people to say, hey, our elections are safe. Our elections are trusted. We are here to vote, and we are here to protect the vote.
SILVER: Karen Hagen is a retired Presbyterian pastor in Milwaukee. She's one of the trained clergy leaders of all faiths that are dispatched to polling places on Election Day as a nonpartisan, peaceful presence.
KAREN HAGEN: It comes up against the false perception that we are not in this together or that we have to be suspicious of each other or guard our turf.
SILVER: One of the groups training the chaplains is the Bridging Divides Initiative, a research organization that works to mitigate political violence in the United States. Benny Witkovsky is one of the trainers.
BENNY WITKOVSKY: The things we're most concerned about are the things we're concerned about every year - people being worried about lines being too long, people being frustrated because they don't have the right information about what ID they need to use, where they're supposed to vote, when they're allowed to vote.
SILVER: Witkovsky says there are also more troubling concerns, which Bridging Divides has watched escalate over the years.
WITKOVSKY: We've seen election workers have their personal information spread across the internet. We've seen election clerks receive threatening messages. We've seen clerks have to take restraining orders out against people in their communities.
SILVER: There's also worry, despite the Trump administration's denial of any such plan, that federal law enforcement could end up at polling places, which could intimidate or deter voters.
WITKOVSKY: And what we know about the role polling chaplains can play is to be those first eyes on the ground.
SILVER: At a voter engagement event on Milwaukee's heavily Hispanic South Side, Rhonda Lindner with WIVEC, the interfaith voters coalition, says clergy are being trained in ICE verification.
RHONDA LINDNER: However, in no circumstances do we want our clergy to step into any sort of dangerous activity. We say the first thing they should do is let the election chief at the site know that there might be something going on.
SILVER: They will also have direct lines to legal hotlines to report voter suppression or intimidation. This clergy election project is not just designed for Wisconsin's large urban areas. There are faith leaders participating in the smallest of rural towns, all using their experience of calming and comforting people to make sure that these midterm elections run as smoothly as possible.
For NPR News, I'm Maayan Silver in Milwaukee.
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