US midterm polls today: Sikh voters get Punjabi guide on rights at polling booths

New York. As Americans vote in the midterm elections on Tuesday, Sikh groups have given voters a guide in Punjabi. It tells them what to do if immigration officers show up at polling stations.

Voters across the US are choosing governors, members of Congress, state lawmakers, city officials and ballot measures. Counting will begin after polls close in the US, so results will reach India from Wednesday.

The Sikh Coalition, a US-based civil rights group, updated its “Know Your Rights at the Polls” guide for 2026 in both English and Punjabi. It explains how to check voter registration, what to do if someone tries to intimidate a voter, and what to do if police or ICE officers are present at the polls.

Young volunteers set up tables at gurdwaras in New Jersey, Wisconsin, Michigan, Massachusetts and North Carolina. They met more than 300 members of the sangat and registered over 30 new voters. They also wrote more than 900 postcards to voters in seven states.

For many Punjabi families, the biggest worry this year is on the highway. Truck driving has long been a lifeline for Sikh immigrants in the US. Sikh Coalition executive director Harman Singh has put the number of Sikh truck drivers at around 1,50,000, mostly on the West Coast.

The Trump administration has brought in tougher English language tests for commercial drivers, citing a 2024 crash in California involving a truck driver of Indian nationality that badly injured a five-year-old girl. More than 26,000 drivers have been taken off the road for failing English tests.

Earlier this year, Munmeeth Kaur Soni, legal director of the Sikh Coalition, said, “ICE has now doubled down on that effort and expanded its enforcement effort to specifically target this population.” The group says it has secured the release of several Sikh drivers held by immigration officers.

Several Indian-Americans are on the ballot. Republican Vivek Ramaswamy is running for Ohio governor against Democrat Amy Acton. Congressman Ro Khanna faces Republican Ritesh Tandon in California’s 17th district.

Pramila Jayapal, Ami Bera and Suhas Subramanyam are seeking re-election, while Amish Shah is a challenger. Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul is seeking another term, and Nithya Raman is running for Los Angeles mayor.

A survey of 800 South Asian registered voters, 87 per cent of them Indian-Americans, found that a quarter of those who backed Donald Trump in 2024 plan to vote for Democrats this time.