Concerns over poll challengers arise as Election Day nears

New concerns over who might be at the polls are arising with Election Day less than a week away.

In an email to the head of the Minneapolis Police Union, a lawyer claiming to be with President Donald Trump’s campaign asked for former officers to serve as poll challengers at locations in the Twin Cities.

A poll challenger is someone who can challenge whether a person is eligible to vote. They can be appointed or picked by a political party but they can only challenge something based on actual knowledge, not an assumption.

Doug Schultz, a political science professor at Hamline University in St. Paul, said, "both sides have worked themselves up into such a frenzy, that is why we are seeing something here in terms of why both sides are wanting them, even though nothing has really changed."

The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party is asking poll challengers to fill out volunteer forms onling while Republicans have sent emails asking potential challengers to watch a video and sign up for four-hour to eight-hour shifts.

Schultz compared what is happening now to a major geopolitical event more than 30 years ago.

"It almost reminds me of the Cold War, the old days when the Soviet Union and the United States kept building more missiles because they were afraid of what the other side was doing, now, that’s what’s happening here," Schultz said.

Schultz noted that, historically, there has been little to no voter fraud or intimidation. He said the parties use these techniques to mobilize their bases but they’ve almost taken on a life of their own this election season.