Senate Democrats announced plans Thursday to deploy trained election observers to polling places in competitive midterm races, marking the first such program in the chamber's history.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., the Rules and Administration Committee's ranking Democrat, unveiled the Election Observer Program roughly four months ahead of the November election that will decide control of the Senate.

The program will recruit Senate staffers, put them through mandatory training on election law and on-site conduct, and deploy them to states with Senate races to observe Election Day operations and the postelection canvass and certification.

Observers will not handle ballots, count votes, advocate for candidates or intervene with election workers, the senators said. Their job is to watch, document and report.

Schumer framed the rollout as a direct counter to what Democrats describe as a sustained effort by President Donald Trump to undercut confidence in the vote.

"Donald Trump is trying to poison trust in the 2026 elections before a single vote is cast — but Senate Democrats will not let him intimidate voters, threaten fair elections, or meddle with the will of the people," Schumer said in a statement.

At a press conference Thursday, he said, "Threats to the 2026 election are not hypothetical, they're happening in real time."

Padilla, who is leading the effort on the committee with jurisdiction over elections, said deployment decisions are not final but will track the closest contests.

"We haven't finalized or decided on the specific locations, but I'm sure one of the biggest considerations will be where we anticipate close contests," he said.

"Because that's where even a little bit of interference, intimidation, harassment can have a disproportionate effect on election results and the election outcomes."

The Senate program is modeled on a long-standing House practice in which both parties train and deploy staff members to observe elections. A law passed in October 2024 authorized congressional leaders on the Senate and House committees that oversee elections to appoint official election observers.

Padilla said he expects Senate Republicans to launch a parallel effort.

The observers will be the operational arm of the Election Protection Task Force, which Schumer launched in April with Padilla, nine other Senate Democrats, and outside election experts.

The task force has run tabletop exercises stress-testing scenarios that include foreign interference, federal agents at polling sites and law enforcement seizing ballots from local officials.

Since taking office for a second term, Trump has pushed an executive order to overhaul federal election procedures; demanded passage of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, known as the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote; and pressed to curtail mail and absentee voting.

Those efforts have drawn court challenges.

Democrats need a net gain of four seats to take the majority, and Schumer has openly acknowledged that the path runs through a handful of tight races where, as he put it, small mishaps could decide who runs the chamber next year.