Elections offices in the US have hardened their security measures this year, anticipating potential violence based on experience since 2020 and during an ongoing rise in threats and harassment focused on election workers.
Many offices have now trained their workers on de-escalation tactics. They have run drills for active shooters or other disturbances. They have a process for flagging the threats that could be criminal and seeking law enforcement help when needed.
Hundreds of election offices have been reinforced with bulletproof glass and steel doors. Some have increased their security details or locked down their social media in case people come looking into their lives. And new laws and added enforcement of prohibitions on such harassment have added to the response to the increased hostility.
Authorities are concerned about the rise of the rightwing election denial movement, which originated in 2020 following Trump’s rejection of his defeat to Joe Biden. Trump’s propagation of unfounded theories regarding the election mobilized large crowds to participate in “Stop the Steal” protests, which reached a climax on 6 January 2021, when supporters stormed the US Capitol in an effort to impede Congress’s confirmation of the election outcomes.
Trump has not committed to accepting the outcome, claiming without evidence that Democrats will cheat to install his opponent, Kamala Harris.
Michigan’s secretary of state Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, said her concern for her personal safety increased after Elon Musk, the owner of X, attacked her online. Before she responded to his claims about Michigan voting and her office, she called her security team to “make sure my family was safe”, she said on NBC.
“Unfortunately for all of us, standing up to bullies and fighting back against misinformation in this moment means putting ourselves in the metaphorical line of fire,” she said. “And that’s quite unnerving. It’s created a state of hyper-vigilance for all of us, but it doesn’t deter us from speaking the truth and making sure citizens have the tools they need to cast their vote in this historical election.”
Adrian Fontes, the Democratic secretary of state in Arizona, recently revealed he wears a bulletproof vest, which came up in testimony as his office sought to keep the names of voters private in a lawsuit over an error in proof of citizenship practices in the state, saying he feared for their safety if made public.
Some states have activated their national guard in preparation for election day. The Washington governor, Jay Inslee, noted an arson attack on a ballot drop box in his state when he called up the guard on Friday, saying their help could be needed to protect election infrastructure or respond to any unrest related to the election. The county sheriff in the area where the drop box fire occurred has increased patrols in response as well.
In Washington DC, the police chief, Pamela Smith, said at a news conference on Tuesday that more than 3,000 police officers would work 12-hour shifts.
Nevada’s governor, Joe Lombardo, announced a “precautionary activation” of the state’s guard for the election, though he added he did not think members would need to be deployed.
In several counties, panic buttons attached to lanyards have been provided for the primary poll worker to wear at every polling site.
Managing security around elections involves weighing competing factors to ensure that people can safely vote, safely protest and safely work at election facilities. A heavy law enforcement presence can in itself deter voters from going to the polls. Those who threaten and harass over elections in part want to create fear around the process, so officials are cognizant to not let them succeed in elevating worry.
“We shouldn’t see that planning and preparation as a guarantee that violence will happen,” said Shannon Hiller, executive director of the Bridging Divides Initiative at Princeton University, which studies and tracks political violence. “You don’t do a fire drill because you’re sure a fire is happening next week, you do a fire drill in case a fire happens … We should understand that planning and preparation as helping us to feel more safe, not less.”
Maricopa county, Arizona, has some of the most visible security measures, spurred by a near-constant presence of threats. In 2020, large protests occurred outside the county’s central tabulation center as votes were counted, creating an unsettling environment for workers. Few protested at the center during the 2022 midterms, after the county installed a permanent fence around the facility and beefed up law enforcement presence, including officers on horseback who strode around as a show of force.
This year, the county’s security measures have grabbed apocalyptic headlines. The permanent fence is also surrounded by a temporary chain-link fence then again by concrete barriers. The county sheriff confirmed there would be drones, though it was not yet clear if they would need to use snipers on rooftops, as the Wall Street Journal reported.
“Across the state, election workers have gone through active-shooter drills and learned to barricade themselves or wield fire hoses to repel armed mobs,” the Journal wrote in October of Arizona. “At the ready are trauma kits containing tourniquets and bandages designed to pack chest wounds and stanch serious bleeding.”
Maricopa county officials held a press conference focused on security measures the week before the election, the mere fact of which had them lamenting attacks on elections that had made these measures necessary. County supervisor Bill Gates said it was a “sad commentary on what’s happened in this country in the last four years”.
The county’s elected officials who oversee voting, most of whom are Republicans, have stood up for the voting process and election results in the face of a pressure campaign from Trump and his allies, who are are pushing the idea that his victory is going to be a landslide. Their outspoken defense of the system has brought an avalanche of harassment and threats, which the officials have shared has taken a toll on them personally.
But, Gates noted: “People who create this chaos in our system had hoped to drive us apart, but in fact, if anything, it has brought us together here in Maricopa county. And I’m very proud of that. And I think that anyone who thinks they’re going to rattle the foundations of the democracy in this county been unsuccessful to this point, they’re going to continue to be unsuccessful.”
The Maricopa county sheriff, Russ Skinner, said his officers were ready to step in at a moment’s notice and work closely with elections officials, but that he was mindful not to intrude at polling places unless there is a public safety need to do so.
“We don’t want to disrupt the process, and certainly we don’t want to influence the process, but I can tell you that you will have enough law enforcement,” Skinner said. “Every agency is on board for the election and the days even following the election, to make sure that these locations are safe, that their communities are safe.”
The federal government has ramped up investigations and enforcement of threats against elections officials, creating a taskforce specifically focused on the issue that has brought charges in cases that cross state lines. Some state and local officials have also charged those who threaten election workers.
The taskforce announced four more cases in late October, including one man who had threatened officials in two states and at the federal level over the course of nearly three years. Another man pleaded guilty who had sent threats to Arizona officials after the 2022 primaries, including a picture of a toy, Woody, from Toy Story “lying face down with an unidentified projectile in its back”.
Many states have added laws that seek to protect election workers from threats, intimidation and harassment – 35 states and Washington DC now have laws aimed at election officials and poll workers after a wave of states enacted new laws since 2020, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
One of those states, Maryland, saw an incident during early voting in which a poll observer trailed an election worker, which the worker reported as intimidating and sought a peace order.
“I have an absolute ZERO tolerance for harassment or making threats against election officials. They have the highest level of integrity & need to do their mission in a safe environment,” Jared DeMarinis, Maryland’s elections administrator, said on X. “It’s shameful an incident has occurred.”
Read more of the Guardian’s 2024 US election coverage:
How the electoral college works
Lessons from the key swing states
What’s at stake in this election
