New Delhi, June 26 -- WASHINGTON - For the first time in Senate history, Capitol Hill employees will be deployed as official election observers inside polling places across 35 states this November, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Alex Padilla announced Thursday, framing the program not as standard campaign mechanics but as a real-time defense against what they described as deliberate efforts to undermine the 2026 midterms.

The Election Observer Program, which Senate Democrats said would be the most expansive initiative of its kind ever run by the chamber, grew directly out of President Trump's sustained push to reshape how elections are administered, investigated, and contested. It is the Senate's version of a confrontat...