At the voting precinct I witness a tense interaction. In the booth next to me an older woman seems to be struggling to fill out her ballot and the man in the adjacent booth is helping her. I overhear him counseling her in the following way, “Now here, see, you have the party of the candidate. Me, I’m a democrat, so I’m voting for democrats.” I don’t think anything of it, and continue filling out my ballot. But a young (white) man who is walking to an open booth hears this and calls out, ‘Hey, you can’t do that, that’s illegal!’ The older man and woman (both Black) either don’t hear him or don’t acknowledge him, so he repeats himself, this time taking a more aggressive tone. I bury my head in my ballot. Failing to get the response he wants, the man approaches one of the poll workers. ‘See that man there? He’s telling the woman how to vote. He can’t do that, that’s illegal!’ The poll worker seems to consider what he’s saying for a minute, then replies, ‘Well, he’s probably just helping her interpret the form.’ Despite the fact that this answer doesn’t really seem adequate, I can’t help but feel annoyed at the young man, who’s taken it upon himself to police other voters. Why is he so vigilant about surveilling the polling station? Does he really believe something untoward is happening, or does he have some hidden political agenda?