Civil rights advocates plan to send thousands of observers to midterm polling places

A voting center is seen in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Oct. 7, the first day of early voting. Olivier Touron/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

It was loteria night at the offices of Living United for Change in Arizona, or LUCHA, in Phoenix.

A small group of young people were playing this bingo-like card game in the hopes of taking home an array of prizes: a camping chair, reusable water bottles and coolers.

Conveniently, the prizes would be useful if you plan to camp out somewhere for a while. Which happens to be what these players were getting trained to do last week.

LUCHA, a left-of-center community organizing group, has been training volunteers to be what they call "constitutional observers" ahead of this year's midterms. This was the first of many in-person sessions the organization plans to hold as Election Day nears.

Carime Rodriguez, who led the training, told volunteers that their main job will be to just observe.

"Monitor the polling environment," she said. "Stay aware of what's happening on the ground … just make sure you are kind of keeping your eyes open."

For many election cycles, groups have fanned out to monitor polling places, but the charged midterm environment has many organizations stepping up efforts. They plan to have thousands of individuals with eyes on this election.