Chaplains head to polling location to bring prayer, comfort to citizens casting ballots
Chaplains from several religious traditions will head to polling locations on Tuesday to bring comfort and faith-based support to voters this election season.
Faiths United in Saving Democracy, a nonpartisan alliance of faith-based and secular organizations, had signed up 1,235 chaplains and "peacekeepers" by Oct. 19, according to Gettysburg Connection.
The volunteers, clergy and lay people will work outside polling places in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, Arizona, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas and Virginia. They will wear hats or vests that identify them and will stay outside the voting area, leaving election workers in charge inside.
Their training reportedly includes learning how to bring calm to any tense encounters that might arise outside a polling location and understanding voters' rights.
Barbara Williams-Skinner, a co-founder of the coalition, said while most participating groups are moderate or progressive, the initiative identifies as nonpartisan.
The coalition said the program builds on work that faith leaders have done to protect past elections.
Karen Hagen, a Presbyterian pastor in Milwaukee, is among the poll chaplains. America magazine quoted her saying that a chaplain stands outside the site to help voters in need and calm trouble. “We are usually the first people, the first someone, that anyone coming to vote would see.”
Chaplains take no political side and wear vests, badges or hats that identify them, she added.
The law requires them to keep a set distance from the voting site, and the rule differs by state. Some will stand 100 feet away, NPR reported.
Hagen said she would have no power to step in if federal officers, such as those from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, came to a polling site. Many voters, Latinos in particular, fear profiling by federal agents and may avoid the polls.
“Any sadness I have is that people might be intimidated to come,” she said.
Sending federal agents to election sites would break state and federal law. The Trump administration has denied any plan to send ICE officers to polling sites, but concerns about such interference remain, according to reports.
Jeanne Kiley, a secular Franciscan in North Carolina and who served as a Catholic poll peacekeeper in 2024, told America magazine she learned of the role through the Franciscan Action Network. She called that election serene and said she fears the midterm “might be a more hostile environment.”
She, too, is trained to calm tense situations and alert the state to anything unusual at the polls.
Pastor Gabriel Salguero of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, or NALEC, told CBN News that many people feel anxious. NALEC has started its own program of poll chaplains and peacemakers that draws on local pastors.
“We don’t work for the Democrats,” Salguero said. “We don’t work for the Republicans.”
The Rev. Katie Sexton, who heads the Arizona Faith Network, an interfaith group with no party ties, was quoted as saying the group trains volunteers to serve as poll chaplains or peacekeepers. Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz, founder of the group Arizona Jews for Justice, claimed to expect intimidation at some polls.
Christian conservative activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated onSept. 10, 2025, and a Pew Research survey taken afterward found that 85% of Americans believe political violence is rising. Polling places have seen protests and intimidation in earlier elections.
Threats and harassment aimed at elected officials have reached historic highs. Two groups, the Wisconsin Council of Churches and the Wisconsin Interfaith Voter Engagement Campaign, or WIVEC, have organized poll chaplains in the state since 2020.
Benny Witkovsky trains chaplains for the Bridging Divides Initiative, a research group that works to reduce political violence in the U.S. He was quoted as saying election workers have had personal details posted online, and some clerks have received threats or sought restraining orders.
Chaplains can also call legal hotlines directly to report intimidation or suppression of voters, and faith leaders in small rural towns are taking part.
