The polls had just closed after the 2020 presidential election. After a long day at work, Kate Mason was getting ready to have a drink in front of the TV. Then her cell phone rang. She was ordered to the TCF Center convention center, where the votes in Wayne County, which includes Detroit, were being counted.
I stayed there for more than 20 hours. It was dramatic, to say the least, says Mason, now executive director of the Michigan Labor Foundation, a labor umbrella organization that also works to strengthen democracy.
Training scenarios
The events in Detroit became historic. At first, Donald Trump was in the lead, but gradually, as mail-in ballots began to be counted, Joe Biden took over. Trump supporters gathered at the convention center, banging on the windows and chanting, “Stop the vote count.”
Detroit has long been at the center of Trump’s false claims of voter fraud. Among other things, claims spread that tens of thousands of fake ballots had been smuggled into the convention center and that dead people had voted. Several lawsuits were filed, but no fraud could be proven.
It is against this background that Kate Mason now holds election and democracy training courses for union members.
The atmosphere is tense. We focus on scenarios such as “what do we do if the FBI comes to seize ballots” or “what happens if Congress refuses to recognize the results,” she says.
As a weapon?
On Election Day on Tuesday, the Michigan Labor Foundation, like several other organizations, will have hundreds of volunteers working outside and inside polling stations. They will also staff a headquarters where suspected errors can be reported.
Trump has tried to pass a law limiting mail-in voting, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has ordered the military to protect the election from foreign influence. Trump has also chosen not to invite election observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to this year’s election. That worries Mason.
It signals that we want to do something “bad.” But I know there will be a lot of eyes on this election, says Mason.
Democracy activist and former social worker Sara Gleicher is involved in Democrat Abdul El-Sayed’s Senate campaign in Michigan. She says election security is being discussed across Detroit now.
People here are afraid that ICE agents will be deployed to the election and, for example, seize ballots, she says.
Many are afraid that Trump will claim fraud if the Democrats win.
What do you think?