{"id":477799,"date":"2026-09-27T23:50:24","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T23:50:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/477799\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T23:50:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T23:50:24","slug":"l-a-voting-rights-groups-mobilize-to-counter-possible-november-election-disruption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/477799\/","title":{"rendered":"L.A. voting rights groups mobilize to counter possible November election disruption"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The once simple message, \u201cGet out the vote,\u201d now has a corollary: \u201cProtect the vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

That message was hammered home Saturday for dozens of voting rights groups, community organizations and unions attending a rally to recruit and train poll watchers for the November election.<\/p>\n

Organizers for several groups brought together under the banner of Love Powers L.A.<\/a> offered scenarios of the threats that could materialize on Nov. 3 \u2014 from ICE raids to intimidation by the Proud Boys \u2014 and detailed strategies to counter them.<\/p>\n

Their goal was to raise a cadre of volunteers for a Neighborhood Vote Protection Program to observe 650 polling places throughout the 11 days of voting and to turn fear and confusion sought by election deniers into a celebration of the right to vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make it a season of excitement,\u201d said Jeremy Payne of the social justice group Catalyst California.<\/a><\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

\"David <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

\"Evelyn <\/p>\n

1. David Gutierrez right, of Inner City Struggle, signs up Jocelyn Elizalde, 22, and Manuel Becerra, 19, from left, to help with outreach, during an event held by Love Powers LA, representing dozens of community groups and labor unions, provide education and training to Angelenos on how to protect their vote and respond to threats of election interference at East Los Angeles College on Saturday, September 26, 2026. (Christina House\/Los Angeles Times) 2. Participants including Evelyn Gonzalez, right, attend a workshop for activist dance and street activation during an event by Love Powers LA, representing dozens of community groups and labor unions, providing education and training to Angelenos on how to protect their vote and respond to threats of election interference, at East Los Angeles College on Saturday, September 26, 2026. (Christina House\/Los Angeles Times) <\/p>\n

The event kicked off with multicultural music by Native American, Korean and West African drum ensembles.<\/p>\n

Speakers from groups as diverse as Can\u2019t Stop California,<\/a> Inner City Struggle<\/a> and Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education: SCOPE<\/a> detailed the threat and their programs to respond to it for 300 prospective volunteers.<\/p>\n

\u201cL.A. is a target for retribution and spectacle,\u201d said John Kim, also of Catalyst California. \u201cWhen they try to steal an election, it is a sign they know they are losing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Godfrey <\/p>\n

Godfrey Plata of L.A. Forward, left, and Jung Hee Choi of We Are California present skits on how to talk to neighbors about voting during the event Saturday. <\/p>\n

(Christina House \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

The event, involving numerous nonprofit organizations, stayed away from endorsements or political messages aimed at the coming election. But speakers didn\u2019t hold back on their views of President Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump is a chicken and a loser,\u201d said Jung Hee Choi, of the umbrella group We Are California<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Choi described two personality types, skeptics and frozen, that the group is targeting.<\/p>\n

She urged volunteers to hold ballot parties in their homes to move skeptics \u201cfrom the couch to the poll\u201d and routine voters from the \u201cfrozen mode to the fight mode.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need people out at the polls,\u201d she said. \u201cYou are the greatest tool to fight back and grow our movement.\u201d<\/p>\n

The groups held their event just a day after Trump\u2019s latest move in his attempt to reshape voting in America. <\/p>\n

The Supreme Court upheld Trump\u2019s expanded use of government data<\/a> to search for noncitizens who are registered to vote. The impact of the decision is likely to be limited, other than to highlight Trump\u2019s distrust of elections and his unproven claims that a large number of illegal voters are casting ballots.<\/p>\n

\"Azenith <\/p>\n

Love Powers L.A., representing dozens of community groups and labor unions, provides education and training to Angelenos including Azenith Morales, Marise Roxas, and Liezl Japona, from left, of the Filipino Workers Center, on how to protect their vote and respond to threats of election interference.<\/p>\n

(Christina House\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Breakout sessions covered how to plan a ballot party, activist dances and street activations.<\/p>\n

Attendee Joe Pugh, who works for the community services organization ATAP, said she planned to host a block party to push the importance of voting in South-Central.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re always talking about \u2018my vote doesn\u2019t count,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

During the poll monitoring session, Emma Olson Sharkey, a partner at the Political Law Group, outlined what poll watchers should look for and what they should do about it.<\/p>\n

Their role, she said, is not to engage. They will observe and report any attempt to intimidate voters or poll workers.<\/p>\n

The organization provides an online report form to report incidents. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope it is boring,\u201d Payne said. \u201cIn most cases, nothing will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The once simple message, \u201cGet out the vote,\u201d now has a corollary: \u201cProtect the vote.\u201d That message was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[187487,7,217,59599,1043,48,52,51,47,50,49,8111,187488,3020,187486,187489,47929,11431,1597,4486,1710],"class_list":["post-477799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-ballot-party","tag-california","tag-day","tag-election-denier","tag-event","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-poll","tag-possible-november-election-disruption","tag-president-trump","tag-right-group","tag-skeptic","tag-speaker","tag-threat","tag-volunteer","tag-vote","tag-voting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}