Everything about this year's election season has been exceptional, so it comes as no surprise that the plans for monitoring Election Day are without precedent.
On the day before the big day, members of the Election Protection Coalition, which includes many prominent civil rights groups, and the Voter Protection Program, which includes attorneys general from around the country, outlined ambitious and assertive plans to make sure that people who set out to vote in person Tuesday have unfettered access to the polls and help if they encounter problems.
Although an astonishing 97 million votes have already been cast either by mail or in person, a consequence of intensified partisan feelings and the realities of the coronavirus pandemic, that still means 60 million ballots or more are almost certain to be cast for President Trump or former Vice President Joe Biden at polling places before all voting in the nation ends Tuesday night.
Kristen Clarke, president of the Lawyers Committee for Justice Under the Law (which leads the Election Protection Coalition), said the group's efforts are the most extensive in the 20 years it has existed.
She said the group handled about 120,000 telephone calls seeking help in casting a ballot or confronting suspected voter suppression in all of 2016 — and just in the last month has handled 135,000 such calls. And she said the number of legal volunteers it had enlisted and trained to promote a fair vote Tuesday has crested 42,000 — probably 10 times the number four years ago
So far, Clark said, the biggest volume of calls with concerns were coming from the swing states of Pennsylvania (17,800), Florida (14,900) and Texas (5,100).
Among the issues they expect to deal with Tuesday are the sorts of long lines voters have encountered in early voting states and the failure of absentee ballots that were requested to show up in people's mailboxes.
Karen Hobert Flynn, the president of Common Cause, said the venerable good government and watchdog organization organized about 6,000 volunteers to monitor the polls in 2016 and about 6,500 for the midterm 2018 election. This year's total is seven times that many — about 45,000.
In addition, several thousand volunteers will be monitoring social media for misinformation.
Maya Berry, executive director of the Arab American Institute, said proof that the disinformation campaigns have worked are polls that find two-thirds of voters worried their ballot will be counted. Despite the fear, she said, "Voter excitement has been something profound."
For those who have a problem voting, the coalition hotline is 866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683).
On their call, the attorneys general and other officials from the battleground states of Michigan, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Arizona and Texas condemned any attempts to threaten or intimidate voters on Tuesday. They all expressed confidence that the election process would be safe and secure, but said if any problems did arise, they would be prepared to take swift action.
At the same time, the Justice Department announced it will be sending staff Tuesday to monitor for federal election law violations in 44 jurisdictions in 18 states — ranging from the D.C. suburb of Fairfax County, Va,. to Los Angeles, and from Boston to Houston
The heightened presence of government officials and outside watchdogs comes as the nation seems on edge going into a presidential election in a way not matched in decades. Their apprehension is not only about whether Trump or Biden wins. It's also about profound concern that basic democratic foundations are wavering. Whether their vote counts, whether the loser accept the result and whether the winner will be able to at least partly repair the breach are questions on the minds of millions.
Seven in 10 voters in one of the last pre-election polls, by the Associated Press, say they are anxious about the election and the potential for violence afterward. Biden supporters were more likely than Trump voters to be nervous — by 72 percent to 61 percent.
A golden tray sits on the Resolute Desk as President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement on American nuclear innovation in the Oval Office at the White House on July 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Trump is signing multiple executive orders targeting the nuclear energy sector and easing rules for new reactors and nuclear fuel supply chains.
Trump’s hubris rivals the fallen heroes of ancient Greek mythology
In January, the New York Times asked President Donald Trump if there were any limits on his global powers.
“Yeah,” the president responded, “there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
That was eight months ago, but fortunately Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster adaptation of “The Odyssey” has made ancient Greek literature newly relevant. Before that window closes, I’d like to talk about hubris.
Today, the term mostly means excessive pride or arrogance. That’s part of what the Greeks meant by it too, but the meaning was a bit richer and more specific. Hubris was an insolent or outrageous act that offended the gods, often because the transgressor was claiming abilities or authorities that solely belonged to supreme beings.
Nolan renamed and slightly modified the concept of xenia for the film, calling it “Zeus’ law.” In the director’s telling, mortals should follow the rules laid out by the gods, specifically the requirement to treat strangers with respect lest they be gods in disguise.
In a sense, hubris is the opposite, or at least the rejection, of xenia. The hubris of the suitors, and at times Odysseus himself, invites punishment by the gods and their mortal instruments.
Which brings me back to Donald Trump. His claim that there are no constraints on his personal power to dictate events on the global stage was one of the greatest expressions of hubris ever uttered by a political leader.
Trump’s claim was obviously false when he made it.
He vowed that he could end the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours. He’s proved powerless to make that happen. If he had divine powers to work his will, why would he have balked at implementing his tariffs so often that Wall Street adopted the “TACO trade” term for his deals? “TACO” stands for “Trump always chickens out.”
And why would Trump have made so many embarrassing concessions to China — from rescinding tariffs on Chinese goods to allowing them to buy crucial and incredibly valuable computer chips?
But Trump saw his success at capturing Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro as proof of his ability to launch missiles to the same effect as Zeus’ lightning bolts. Trump believed he was the most powerful man who ever lived.
This is no exaggeration. In March, when the Iran invasion seemed successful, Trump gave a document penned by“Presidential Historian David King” to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan purporting to prove that Trump was “the most powerful person to have EVER walked this planet.” King was, in fact, a businessman and occasional caddy for legendary golfer Gary Player.
King compared Trump favorably to many of history’s most powerful, and often heinous, figures: Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, William the Conqueror, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Genghis Khan, Mao Tse Tung, Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin. Many of these men thought they were the most powerful person in the world, too. And many were defeated precisely because they believed it.
At least Napoleon and Hitler had a string of truly impressive victories before they learned the folly of hubris. The limits on Trump’s power have been exposed by far less august forces than the combined might of the allies in World War II or the fearsome Russian winter.
Iran is a comparatively middling power. But the regime’s ability to absorb punishment while imposing its will on the Strait of Hormuz has proved to be a greater constraint on Trump’s power than his morality or mind. We should note that, at least rhetorically, his morality has not proved much of a constraint. He has repeatedly promised to destroy Iranian “civilization” if the regime refuses to capitulate.
But they haven’t — and won’t anytime soon — because the regime’s tolerance for pain far outstrips Trump’s. The combined fear of skyrocketing oil prices, outrage of Gulf state potentates, diminishing weapon supplies and domestic unpopularity is doing the work that international law, congressional oversight and the collective opinion of foreign policy experts can’t or won’t do.
If I considered Trump more heroic than reason and facts could allow, I would say his Sisyphean predicament has the whiff of Greek tragedy to it. Trump is vexed by the fact that the Iranians won’t honor deals or ratify his countless premature claims of victory — giving new meaning to his vow that his presidency would make people tired of winning. It’s almost like they’re out-Trumping Trump.
Things might have gone better if he’d heeded that great Greek tragedian Sophocles: “For Zeus utterly abhors the boasts of a proud tongue.”
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Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.