Fearing troops or ICE at the polls, Arizona organizers train hundreds as election observers
As President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice has said it plans to send election monitors to Arizona and other swing states, community organizers are focusing on training hundreds of locals on how to be election observers — with an emphasis on what to do if the National Guard or immigration agents arrive at the polls.
“The threats facing our democracy are not theoretical,” Vivian Serafin, a member of Living United for Change in Arizona, told members of the press that gathered for a roundtable discussion about the training on Saturday.
LUCHA, along with the Arizona Center for Empowerment, organized training events in Phoenix’s heavily Latino Maryvale neighborhood and in Tucson Between the two events over 250 people received the training, according to LUCHA.
As reporters sat in a reception hall in west Phoenix that usually hosts weddings and quinceañeras, LUCHA displayed a heat map showing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in Maricopa County alongside past and future polling locations.
https://azmirror.com/2026/07/11/fearing-troops-or-ice-at-the-polls-arizona-organizers-train-hundreds-as-election-observers/