by Bruce Checefsky

   (Plain Press September 2026) To spread fear among voters, President Trump said in May that he would “do anything necessary to make sure we have honest elections; we have to have honest elections.” Given the president’s threat, National Guard troops, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, or unauthorized private militia, could appear at polling locations during the midterm elections.

   Deploying armed federal agents or military forces is illegal under long-standing federal law, but, according to Deb Kline, “it may not matter.”

   Kline is one of hundreds of precinct captains that form the grassroots backbone of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party (CCDP). She serves as the Democratic Club president for Cleveland’s Ward 11 and as a second-term president of the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) Local 1794.

   As a precinct captain, Kline attends CCDP and local block club meetings, canvasses her precinct, registers voters door-to-door, and serves as a liaison between the Democratic Party and community residents. She also recruits, organizes, trains, and manages team members and volunteers.

   “Door-to-door knocking is successful in reaching voters, but people are not opening their doors, so we leave packets for them,” she said, adding, “The voting rules have changed in Cuyahoga County, making it difficult for people who have not voted during the past two years. They are effectively purged from party affiliation and registration.”

   In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Ohio’s controversial “use-it-or-lose-it” voting law, which allows the state to strike voters from the registration rolls if they do not return a mailed address confirmation form and don’t vote for another four years, or two federal election cycles. Ohio is the only state with a process based on failure to vote in a single federal election cycle, according to the League of Women Voters and the Brennan Center for Justice.

   Kline continued. “There was a time when you could go to a voting poll location, and if you did not have a photo ID, you could use a utility bill to prove where you live. You cannot do that anymore.”

   Once purged from the list, voters must re-register. “I wish more people would wake up and see what is going on,” she said. “There is a lot of fear about the November election, whether federal troops will be at polling stations to intimidate people.”

   Kline suggests voting by mail, or absentee voting, which could eliminate the need to show up at the polls. Even then, the Trump administration is petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to allow the nationwide implementation of an executive order that would place major federal restrictions on mail-in and absentee voting ahead of the November midterms.

   “As an organizer, I want neighbors to look out for each other because if your neighbor does not have your back when you need them,” she said, “then who will?”

   Dr. Shereen Naser, a Precinct Committee Member for Ward 11, Precinct E (Precinct 11E), knocks on as many doors as possible to register people to vote and remind them about the midterm elections. The eldest daughter of eight children of Palestinian parents who were displaced from their home, Naser, a Palestinian American, wants to increase the vote for Arab Americans across Northeast Ohio.

   “For communities like Palestinian Americans, we are seeing decisions getting made without us,” she said, referring to the Israel lobby money in political campaigning. “Over $30 million was spent on Haley Stevens (D-Michigan), and in Ohio, millions were spent on Shontel Brown in her race against Nina Turner.”

   Turner lost her race to Brown. Abdul El-Sayed (D) defeated Stevens in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Michigan last August. El-Sayed and Republican former congressional representative Mike Rogers will face off in the midterms. Michigan is a key battleground that could determine the balance of power and control of the majority in Congress.

   The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), along with AIPAC shell organizations and the Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI), is lobbying specifically for a foreign country, said Naser, an associate professor of psychology at Cleveland State University, where she focuses on how marginalized students, especially queer and Arab youth, experience school settings. “We want Israel to stop influencing our political decision-making here in the United States with lobby money.”

   Her recent research indicates that at least 20% of Americans, including not just Palestinians, witness or experience anti-Palestinian racism, which includes the silencing of conversations about Palestine or being told to remove the traditional keffiyeh, a scarf worn draped loosely around the neck or placed on the head.

   “Our civil rights are infringed upon,” said Naser. “It’s scary. We continue to experience denialism and silencing.”

   Northeast Ohio has a sizable Palestinian community, between 30,000 and 35,000. Official U.S. Census Bureau figures and American Community Survey reports lower numbers because Arab Americans must use the White checkbox for race identification, which misrepresents them.

Middle Eastern or North African (MENA), a new checkbox, will appear on the census and federal data collection forms in 2030.

   “Voter disenfranchisement in the Palestinian and Arab communities stems from a feeling of being erased. Our elected officials do not represent us. Almost every City Council member has gone on paid trips to Israel, along with major people from our top nonprofit organizations,” Nasar said. “We feel unseen.”

   JaNea Hambrick is a lifelong Democrat and resident of the Buckeye neighborhood. She is president of the Northeast Ohio Young Black Democrats, a regional political group that mentors, recruits, and empowers a new generation of African American leaders across Northeast Ohio. Hambrick is in her second term as precinct captain for Ward 6, Precinct I (Precinct 6I).

   With 976 registered voters in her precinct, only 115, or less than 12%, cast their vote during the 2026 primary. “We need to educate people about elections,” she said, acknowledging the low voter turnout. “And get them out to vote once they are registered.”

   A torn meniscus prevents her from walking the neighborhood and knocking on doors, but her voter registration plan includes mailing information to her constituents at least twice before the election. Ward 6 faces many challenges, she said, including finding things for kids to do in their spare time, abandoned and boarded-up buildings scattered throughout the neighborhood, and significantly elevated crime rates. The overall crime rate in Cleveland is 154% above the national average.

   Hambrick worries that Democratic candidate Amy Acton may have dampened her chances to win the seat for governor of Ohio after anti-transgender comments she made regarding the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision to uphold state bans on transgender athletes. In June, Acton told the Toledo Blade that she did not support boys playing in girls’ sports and would enforce and uphold the law as governor. Her comments sparked controversy within the LGBTQ+ community, and at a meeting a few weeks later to address the issue, she did not show up.

   “I will do whatever I can to get Acton into the governor’s mansion,” Hambrick promised. “I don’t think she is transphobic or homophobic. She got poor advice, and it was a mistake for her not to be there.”

   Acton is running against Republican frontrunner Vivek Ramaswamy in the general election on November 3, 2026. Recent polling shows both candidates drawing 47% of the vote in a head-to-head matchup.