Newsletter: What’s scarier than Halloween? Being a poll worker during a presidential election

Good morning. It is Wednesday, Oct. 23 — less than two weeks to election day. Here’s what’s happening in Opinion so far this week.

The other day, I texted a link to Vet the Vote to a friend who recently retired from the U.S. Navy. It’s an effort by a coalition of several veterans organizations (and NASCAR and the NFL?) to recruit military service veterans and their family members to serve as poll workers and help support “safe and secure elections.”

I thought it would be fun way to experience what may well be the most important election in our lifetime, and meet some neighbors.

But she was not interested: “I don’t trust the safety measures at polling places,” she texted back right away.

Fair point. There’s plenty of jitters about what might happen on election day. Some school districts have opted to close campuses to voting just to be extra safe while others, in states including Alaska and Idaho, have canceled classes or switched to remote learning on Nov. 5 because schools are used as polling places.

It’s dismaying that we have gotten to the point that it’s so scary to be an election worker that we are recruiting former warriors to stand guard — and even some of them don’t feel safe enough to do so.

But more worrisome is what comes after people cast their ballots, the editorial board writes. “The greater danger in the event of a close election might be violence or intimidation directed against election workers and state officials in the period between Nov. 5 and Jan. 6, 2025.”

Still, this election day I will be giving silent thanks to all the brave poll workers across the nation who show up to keep democracy moving.

What more does Kamala Harris have to do to win? Editorial writer Carla Hall finds it maddening that Harris’ successful record as a prosecutor, U.S. senator and vice president may not be enough to win against Donald Trump.

10 things I hate about you, Donald Trump. Columnist Jackie Calmes has a list of top reasons why you should not vote for the former president, including his many, many — so many! — lies and being “the most dangerous person to this country,” according to Mark A. Milley, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The risks of sharing your DNA with online companies aren’t a future concern. They’re here now. Is your genetic data already being misused by one of the DNA testing and matching companies? It’s possible, says UC Davis law professor Nila Bala, who argues that the government needs regulations to protect genetic privacy.

How Trump and Republicans distorted federal data into an imaginary migrant murder spree. Florida State professors Daniel Mears and Bryan Holmes debunk the latest effort to tie immigration to violent crime.

More from opinion

From our columnists

• LZ Granderson: Sorry, Trump. Americans know how a ‘real man’ should act
• Robin Abcarian: Hello, my name is Robin, and I have presidential election poll derangement syndrome
• Jonah Goldberg: Here’s why the race between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris looks so impossibly close

From guest contributors

• I door-knocked for normal Republicans in my home state. Wyoming, what happened to you?
• President Vance? Brace yourself for it. Trump is already deteriorating
• As we get older, increasing loss is the lay of the land. But at 75, I made a surprising gain

From the Editorial Board

• Find all the Nov. 5 electoral endorsements here
• Karin Klein: Education gets short shrift from Trump and Harris on the presidential campaign trail
• Election denialism could spark violence after a close election

Letters to the Editor

• No articles on Kamala Harris’ felonies and insurrection? So unfair of the L.A. Times
• Proposition 36 swings the criminal justice pendulum back to public safety
• Why is L.A.’s disgraced ex-archbishop still a cardinal?