The American Civil Liberties Union will spend more than $50 million on the 2026 midterm election, with half going toward efforts to ensure smooth administration of elections as President Donald Trump seeks to exert more control over the process.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.In plans shared first with NBC News, ACLU officials said they will train and deploy more than 100 paid staff members and more than 3,000 volunteer leaders to encourage people to vote and to ensure voter access while monitoring ballot counting and certification.Those people will coordinate thousands of other volunteers.
The ACLU said it has already trained 5,000 people on election work and plans to train 5,000 more.Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — all critical battleground states — are expected to receive the bulk of the investment.
Widespread monitoring of the canvass and certification is new for the organization, said Deidre Schifeling, the ACLU’s chief political and advocacy officer.“We are in a really unprecedented situation here with this administration’s abuses of power and concerted attempts to suppress voters, to gerrymander, to basically co-opt our democratic system,” Schifeling said.“Where it is clear that the administration is undermining the legitimacy of our democratic process and trying to co-opt it or sabotage it, we will be ready to react to that in a variety of ways,” she added, noting that they could include litigation, protests or public information campaigns.
Some of the efforts are already underway.The ACLU is involved in more than 80 lawsuits in two dozen states and Washington, D.C., over voting rights issues, including suits involving redistricting and mail balloting limits.The group has also begun election-monitoring efforts.
In last month’s Georgia primary, local ACLU affiliates put monitors on the ground to watch voting and vote co...