>> Election Day is tomorrow.

And many voters are wondering what to expect at the polls last month the Department of Justice announced plans to send election monitors to polling places around the country, including Lake County in northwest Indiana.

Meanwhile, voting rights advocates in Chicago are hoping for smooth election, but are preparing for anything such as voter intimidation.

This all follows a redistricting battle court decisions on mail-in voting changes and more.

Joining us now with what you should know ahead of Election Day are Steven Schwinn a law professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago.

Kristina Beeler, senior counsel at the Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Emily Schrock.

Also senior counsel at the Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights with a focus on voting rights in Indiana.

Thanks to all of you for joining us.

I'm Christina starting with you.

What are you prepared for in Chicago on Election Day?

>> They for whatever our way.

So we hope that we are preparing for a very boring election day tomorrow.

elections boring But anything were to happen, they, for example, voter intimidation or federal agents at the polls.

we don't expect we are prepared to take action and it any boaters, see anything that they're concerned about.

should call 8, 6, 6 our votes.

We are nonpartisan Securus a free hotline for voters to call in with questions or concerns.

And we are standing by and ready all day tomorrow.

>> Kristina, what's the possibility that ICE or Border Patrol agents should show up at polling locations tomorrow?

>> So we do expect to see it Border Patrol agents at polling locations.

And if we did, it would be illegal for them to be there.

Federal law prohibits voter intimidation and prohibits federal agents from going to the polls.

So there are currently several lawsuits challenging preemptively the deployment of ice or federal agents at the polls or a type of our partners who are engaged in those lawsuits and ready to take action ourselves as well if needed.

We don't expect to see yet.

But if we do, we are ready to take action because it would violate federal law.

>> Emily focusing over in Indiana.

What do we know about DOJ?

Election monitors being sent to Indiana?

>> 2 of our counties, but Marion County and Lake County have both received notifications that DOJ as election monitors will be on site.

I've been in contact with the election boards for each of those counties and have they've gotten similar responses from DOJ in conversations with them.

We are expecting 12 monitors that each of those counties they're supposed to be paired up in plain clothes, but they're not allowed to interfere with the election so voters should feel safe to go vote even if they do encounter.

Election monitors.

And I will say that I have learned from our partners that the DOJ monitors to have the ability to do an exit survey.

And so voters may be asked questions leaving the polls, but you are not required to talk to anyone.

When you leave the polls.

>> Ok, and you mentioned Marion County, of course, that's where Indianapolis is you know, what does the law say about what these monitors can and cannot do?

>> Absolutely.

So these monitors were part of actually the original Voting Rights Act in 1965.

The start of them was to keep elections safe and secure when states were not doing that.

So now we have the DOJ miners coming in maybe to just make sure it's just safe and the election officials here in Indiana are cautiously optimistic that that is exactly what they're going to be here to do.

But we do know that they do not have a right to be in the polling location.

And here in Indiana, we have no electioneering within what we call the shoot, which is the 50 foot mark before voting occur.

So and anything physically within 50 feet of where voting occurs is not allowed by our DOJ election monitors or electioneering in general.

So there should be no encounters with them going into the polls as they're not supposed to talk to voters going into the polls.

They're not supposed to talk to them in the polling location themselves and only outside of that 50 foot Shuai they allowed when they're exiting the polls.

>> Steve, even before getting to Election Day, Howell says this administration sort of challenge the norms around voting rights around us where to even start.

Let's count the ways.

So this administration has issued a couple of executive orders that have been struck by the courts.

One, as we talked about last time with regard to the postal Service and dry land.

Allen exactly another one, creating a federal list of registered voters which the federal government just historically has not done.

And then more recently Brandis we've seen the Department of Justice move to intimidate local election officials by sending them a different letter saying that they're going to be prosecuted basically for doing their job.

And so we have a federal court in California that just over the weekend issued a landmark ruling telling the Justice Department that they can't threaten or intimidate voters or election officials in the upcoming election.

We also heard the administration in a couple of states, you know, asking those states are courts to withhold some ballots depending on on the outcome of the election and various efforts to sort of intervene.

>> But you know that plus, all of the other things that you've named to a kind of cumulative impact this.

What does all of that all of that have on elections?

Well, I think time will tell.

We'll see what happens with voter turnout tomorrow.

But so far the signs are good.

We've seen record breaking turnout in early voting.

>> We've seen lines in the year in the intro to the segment, we saw lines going around the block in Chicago.

So this is very exciting and hoping that voters are going to ignore the noise and nevertheless show up at the polls.

>> Kristina beyond providing legal support what other forms of voting rights advocacy are people preparing to engage and tomorrow?

>> Yeah.

So we're also just prepared to answer basic questions.

So if someone wants to know, hey, what ID do I need to take to the hall?

Hey, how do I do same day registration or, for example, a question we got today.

Hey, just been hospitalized and I'm not going to be able to get to the polls where my options we can either answer basic questions where we can help you solve a problem.

And we also can do advocacy with local election authorities.

>> Stephen, what are the possible scenarios for election challenge is extending beyond Election Day?

Well, so there are a lot of possibilities.

And and part of it is we just don't know.

Brandis.

We've seen this administration take extraordinary efforts in past elections and in this election makes it very, very difficult to know what to predict, but what we can expect, I think, is challenges at the state level.

So state challenges to state election results, possibly federal challenges as well.

We've already stunt seen the Department of Justice move in that direction in California and Washington and Alaska.

And they may move forward with those lawsuits challenging the outcome of the election.

>> Emily, how have Department of Justice election monitors historically been used in the past?

>> Yeah.

In the past they were used to prevent racial discrimination and it was making sure that states were not having poll taxes or anything else that made people of color feel any certain way about voting.

It is the right of every eligible voter and the United States to have the right to vote.

And it's the states that have the time place and manner ability to decide on how you vote.

So it was its beginnings.

It was to prevent any issues.

And I think that kinda to what we're hearing about with this administration, unfortunately, we are seeing a bit of a chilling effect just by them being president because current administration's decisions regarding the Department of Justice.

So here Indiana, we've been trying really hard to promote early voting if people feel chilled by decision by Department of Justice.

But also we're just asking voters if you see something that doesn't seem right.

Please call the hotline at 8, 6, 6, are both because that you should not feel intimidated at the polls.

We'll have a threat of intimidation itself.

So and you know that original impetus of monitors with was wholesome and like I mentioned, are board of elections.

Here is really cautiously optimistic that that remains the same.

>> All right.

Just to be clear, that is 8, 6, 6, O Ur vote Vo Ti and I'm I think journalists and attorneys alike are all in favor of Christina's idea to make elections boring again.

Me.

But maybe we should get some