Senate Democrats announced Wednesday that they have recruited and trained more than 100 congressional staff members for a new election observer program as President Donald Trump continues his efforts to undermine confidence in elections ahead of the midterms.

The first-of-its kind Senate program, announced in June and led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., is intended to deploy staffers across nine states to polling locations and sites where ballots are counted and elections are canvassed and certified. There, staffers will observe, document and report back to the Senate any apparent attempts to interfere with voting, including any threats made against election workers and attempts to distribute misinformation.

This Democratic-led deployment of Senate election observers comes amid a broader push by the the Trump administration and Republicans to reshape election rules ahead of the midterms, including efforts to remove people from voter rolls whom the government deems ineligible and to restrict mail-in and absentee voting. Trump has also repeatedly promoted false claims about widespread voter fraud and pushed to deploy federal law enforcement at voting sites.

Trump has also recently broken with a decadeslong tradition and declined to invite international observers to witness its federal elections for this midterm, a move met with fierce criticism from congressional Democrats. The Department of Justice, which deploys personnel from its Civil Rights Division to monitor polling places, says it will increase its presence during the midterm elections. Harmeet Dhillon, head of the Civil Rights Division, announced in August that the department plans to deploy 1,000 of its own election monitors to polling sites across the country, calling it “the largest monitoring effort in @theJusticeDept history!”

In a statement announcing the program, Schumer said Democrats refuse to let Trump meddle in the election.

“Donald Trump is trying to steal the election, but Democrats and the American people won’t let him,” the senator said. “Our elections are free and secure, but we cannot take that for granted. I am grateful for the Senate staff members who are raising their hand to help build trust in our upcoming election and protect the sanctity of our democracy.”

Padilla also said in the announcement that Trump “has made clear that he wants to ‘take over the voting’ in state-run elections,” and characterized it as election interference that is “unconstitutional and illegal and Congress will be watching.”

“Every eligible American deserves to cast a ballot free from intimidation, and every vote deserves to be counted fairly,” Padilla said.

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