With harassment and intimidation expected, ‘poll chaplains’ work to keep calm on Election Day
Leaders and students from all faith traditions have been trained in deescalation techniques
People waiting in line to vote in Michigan. Courtesy of Getty Images
By Mira Fox November 5, 2024
“If people come to intimidate, we’re there to make sure that doesn’t happen,” said rabbinical student Rafi Ellenson.
Reached by phone Tuesday morning, Ellenson was traveling from Boston to Philadelphia to be a “poll chaplain” at a voting site in the city — one of 10 students from Hebrew College going to the city, in the swing state of Pennsylvania, to help keep the peace at contentious polling sites.
“We’re trained in pastoral care to be a calming presence,” the 30-year-old said. He and his cohort will be on the lookout for “voter suppression tactics,” to “prevent any of that from going down,” he said. “Just be a general friendly face.”
The poll chaplains were organized by a group called Faiths United to Save Democracy; the nonprofit group’s website describes it as a “nonpartisan, multiracial, multifaith, and multigeneration,” and “rooted in the belief that everyone is made in the image of God and deserves the freedom to vote.”
T’ruah, the rabbinical human rights group, helped organize rabbis and cantors to take part in the effort. “The collaboration is a testament to the role of faith communities in upholding democratic values, and it underscores the shared belief across faith traditions in the dignity of each person’s voice and vote,” the group said in a press release.
The groups have organized poll chaplains in 10 swing states, including Pennsylvania, for the last two elections. But this year, they’ve got their biggest crew yet, with more than 800 faith leaders trained.
The work of faith-based deescalation and counseling is particularly striking this year, given that members of Trump’s campaign, and leaders of Christian nationalist groups, have sometime used militaristic language to urge followers to be “God-appointed warriors” and “troops in the trenches” to win the election for Trump.
Lance Wallnau, an influential evangelical mega-preacher, has been holding tent-revival style gatherings in swing states. There, he whips the crowd into a froth about the likelihood of Democrats stealing the election, demonic possession of Vice President Kamala Harris and the need to fight back.
Some the fighting Wallnau and his like urge is through prayer. But some of it is through election interference and exhortations to “warfare.”
This makes it particularly poignant to have religious leaders beating a different drum, one of fair elections and calm voting.
Ellenson said that Faiths United to Save Democracy had organized numerous trainings for its poll chaplains on how to deescalate situations ,or distract anyone attempting to intimidate or harass voters. Techniques include engaging a harasser in conversation to divert them from the voting line, and making sure not to condescend while noting the negative impact of aggression on the voters.
“The stakes feel very, very high,” Ellenson said. “We’re hoping for a boring day.”
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