NPR reports on some of the generated hysteria over allowing watchers in the polling place to observe the voting process and where many simply ignore the right of parties and candidates to have representatives in the polls.

All of this comes amid heightened concerns among election officials about confrontations at the polls, between voters and aggressive monitors. But Republican election attorney Ben Ginsberg thinks some of those fears are overblown, in part because states have rules governing who can and can’t monitor voting inside the polls and what they can and can’t do. Most have to be trained and certified, and appointed by either campaigns or political parties.  “Vigilantes cannot come waltzing into a polling place and start disrupting the voting,” says Ginsberg. “So I tend to think that this is more the pregame hype.”