Election Day live updates: What you need to know, even when the polls close

Posted

November 5, 2024 at 5:31 pm EST

More than 1,000 clergy and believers from various faiths are helping to keep the atmosphere peaceful at polling stations across the country.

Organized by Faiths United to Save Democracy – a non-partisan and multi-religious organization – pastors, imams, rabbis and clergy known as “election ministers” and “peacekeepers” are present at polling stations in 10 states: North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Texas , Florida, Alabama, Arizona, Wisconsin and Michigan.

“It's going smoothly,” say many election chaplains who called their command center in Washington, D.C., throughout the day to check in with leadership.

Polling stations in Pennsylvania and Michigan had DJs playing music, voters dancing and eating food, poll workers say.

But there were also reports of voter intimidation and voting machines failing. Men in trucks loudly recited speeches by former President Donald Trump outside polling stations, according to an election minister in Cleveland, Ohio. Clergy have also reported heavy police presence at polling places, and some say they have been barred from interacting with voters in Michigan.

“What they told us is that the presence of ordained ministers, imams and rabbis with their collars created a calming, moral presence. It says we're here,” Barbara Williams-Skinner told NPR.

The election chaplains, who are unpaid, are trained to “de-escalate conflict where they see it” and to be peacemakers, she says.

“They create an environment that says, 'We're all Americans here.' “We all have the right to be here and we are here to ensure that no one is intimidated or threatened,” she said. “We don’t care which candidate you choose. We are here because we believe the vote is sacred.”

The purpose of the role is not to “evangelize” or preach to people, said Bishop Vashti Murphy-McKenzie. The clergy don't tell people who to vote for either.

“We are just there to provide assistance and have a peacekeeping presence,” she said.