Why are poll watchers at my polling place?

+ Quincy Jones' visionary approach to arranging US Edition - Today's top story: What poll watchers can − and can't − do on Election Day [View in browser]( US Edition | 5 November 2024 [The Conversation] [The Conversation]( Top headlines - [Cuba’s electricity crisis threatens regime]( - [Carl Sagan’s vast scientific impact]( - [Native American societies’ complex governance]( Lead story If you haven’t already voted in this election, today’s the day. And when you head to your local polling place, you’ll likely see many people in different roles, including fellow voters, and paid and volunteer election workers. There will likely be some others there, too: poll watchers. Though most of them represent one political party or another, poll watchers’ presence is allowed as part of keeping democratic elections open and transparent, explain political science professors Mollie Cohen of Purdue University and Geoffrey Sheagley from the University of Georgia. Observers who are independent of the government operations they’re watching “help to ensure that elections are free and fair,” they write, though at times poll watchers have gone too far and intimidated voters or election workers. State laws determine [the extent of what poll watchers can do]( and lay out the process by which voters or election workers can object to their actions. As Cohen and Sheagley note, that includes ensuring voters can defend themselves against accusations that they are not legally eligible to cast a ballot. [ [The best of The Conversation, every Sunday. Sign up here](. ] Jeff Inglis Politics + Society Editor Poll watchers keep an eye on voting in Georgia in November 2022. AP Photo/Ben Gray [What poll watchers can − and can’t − do on Election Day]( Mollie J. Cohen, Purdue University; Geoffrey D. Sheagley, University of Georgia Political parties sign up volunteers to observe what happens at polling places – which can improve transparency or cause problems. Arts + Culture - [Quincy Jones mastered the art of arrangement, transforming simple tunes into epic soundscapes]( Jose Valentino Ruiz, University of Florida The visionary arranger thought of himself as a storyteller, not just a sound engineer. - [The 27 Club isn’t true, but it is real − a sociologist explains why myths endure and how they shape reality]( Zackary Okun Dunivin, University of California, Davis Famous musicians and artists aren’t necessarily more likely to die at 27. But the story that they do shapes how we perceive history and reality. Election 2024 - [How Native Americans guarded their societies against tyranny]( Kathleen DuVal, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Native American communities were elaborate consensus democracies, many of which had survived for generations because of careful attention to checking and balancing power. - [Beefing up Border Patrol is a bipartisan goal, but the agency has a troubled history of violence and impunity]( Ragini Shah, Suffolk University Created in 1924 to enforce draconian new immigration quotas, Border Patrol recruited its first agents from the Texas Rangers militia, giving it a kind of rogue, cowboy culture that persists today. - [Slow vote-counting, flip-flopping leads, careful certification and the weirdness of the Electoral College – people who research elections look at what to expect on election night]( Jeff Inglis, The Conversation Take a deep breath: Having to wait for election results means the system is working as it should, with safeguards and double-checks. - [Is the US election making you feel adrift and wobbly? That’s ‘zozobra’ – and Mexican philosophers have some advice]( Carlos Alberto Sánchez, San José State University; Francisco Gallegos, Wake Forest University Mexican philosophers have a word for the peculiar anxiety you may be feeling: ‘zozobra,’ a dizziness that arises from social disintegration. Ethics + Religion - [Kristallnacht’s legacy still haunts Hamburg − even as the city rebuilds a former synagogue burned in the Nazi pogrom]( Yaniv Feller, University of Florida Questions about how to represent German Jews, past and present, have complicated plans to rebuild the destroyed temple. International - [Will the lights go out on Cuba’s communist leaders? With fewer options to prop up economy, their future looks dimmer]( Joseph J. Gonzalez, Appalachian State University Blackouts on the Caribbean island are shining a light on a crumbling economy that the nation’s communist leaders may struggle to emerge from. Education - [Only 5.3% of welders in the US are women. After years as a writing professor, I became one − here’s what I learned]( Jo Mackiewicz, Iowa State University Being a woman in a welding and fabrication shop means finding workarounds for getting tasks done. Science + Technology - [Cells have more mini ‘organs’ than researchers thought − unbound by membranes, these rogue organelles challenge biology’s fundamentals]( Allan Albig, Boise State University Membraneless organelles, also called biomolecular condensates, are changing how scientists think about protein chemistry, various diseases and even the origin of life. - [Carl Sagan’s scientific legacy extends far beyond ‘Cosmos’]( Jean-Luc Margot, University of California, Los Angeles On what would’ve been the astronomer’s 90th trip around the Sun, here’s a look at his legacy as a scientist, advocate and communicator. Trending on site - [Who formally declares the winner of the US presidential election?]( - [The racist ‘one-drop rule’ lives on in how Trump talks about Black politicians and whiteness in America]( - [Kamala Harris’ and Donald Trump’s records on abortion policy couldn’t be more different – here’s what actions they both have taken while in office]( Today's graphic 📈 [A map of the United States color-coded according to the number of people per electoral college vote. Wyoming has the fewest people of any state, who determine its three Electoral College votes. California has 68 times as many people – but only 18 times as many Electoral College votes.]( From the story, [No country still uses an electoral college − except the US]( - - More of The Conversation Like this newsletter? 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