The US is racing to ensure security before the election

Many US state governments are implementing unprecedented security plans to deal with the risk of violence breaking out and other nightmare scenarios on election day November 5, as well as reassuring people that votes Their votes will be kept safe.

Local officials are taking a series of measures such as arranging snipers to protect the headquarters of vote counting agencies, installing alarm buttons for election staff or deploying surveillance drones. 24/7 surveillance.

Law enforcement put emergency response forces on standby and dispatched police to patrol the streets. At least two states, including Nevada and Washington, have activated the National Guard in case of unrest. The Arizona secretary of state, who is responsible for certifying the entire state’s election results, said he plans to wear a bulletproof vest when on duty.

“There are clear and present dangers, but we are also very vigilant and have raised the level of protection significantly. However, the waste of resources should not have happened and certainly should not have happened.” normalize this, said Damon Hewitt, executive director of the US-based Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights.

According to analysts, the biggest threat is the movement to deny the election results that has emerged since 2020, when Republican candidate Donald Trump refused to recognize the victory of Democratic opponent Joe Biden.

He promoted conspiracy theories about election fraud, causing thousands of people to take to the streets to protest and culminate in the Capitol Hill riot on January 6, 2021. Trump was later indicted in state and federal court on charges of trying to overturn the election results, but pleaded not guilty.

Election denialism, which existed only in the minority, has spread to the core group of the Republican party, becoming a force that supports Trump and holds a lot of influence. They refused to accept defeat even before the vote took place.

Trump did not commit to accepting this year’s results and claimed that the Democrats would cheat to put his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, into power without providing specific evidence. Democratic candidate Harris has affirmed that he will accept the election results and transfer power peacefully.

Polls show a tight margin between Trump and Harris, but the former president’s allies have repeatedly declared that his victory is “inevitable”..

“If he loses or perceives that he is losing, one can imagine the shock to Trump’s supporters. Troublemakers will take advantage of that to try to anger them, inciting violence,” David Becker, executive director of the Center for American Election Research and Innovation, warned.

A prime example of efforts to prepare for the worst can be seen in Maricopa County, where the majority of Arizona voters live.

The election headquarters building in downtown Phoenix is ​​guarded like a fortress, and staff are monitoring social media around the clock for problems. Law enforcement agencies also deploy drones to monitor potential threats.

Maricopa was at the center of an effort by Trump and his allies to stop the ballot counting process in 2020. Hundreds of his supporters protested outside the vote-counting center, but the effort failed.

In this year’s election, Maricopa County Sheriff Russ Skinner mobilized up to 200 officers to work 24/7 from the time people went to vote until the ballots were counted, while also monitoring locations. polling stations and outdoor ballot boxes. The police department also plans to place snipers on the roofs of buildings if necessary.

Skinner said the county did not have to deploy more than 50 officers to work in elections before 2020. “All the calculations have changed since then,” he said.

Similar scenes appeared in other states. Hundreds of election offices are reinforced with bulletproof glass, steel doors and surveillance equipment. Some counties have distributed panic buttons on neckbands to key workers at each polling place.

Many counties have stockpiled personal protective equipment and antidotes for opioid overdoses, in case suspicious powder arrives in the mail, as has happened in recent years.

US authorities say foreign adversaries are also taking advantage of tensions.

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) accused Russia of being behind many fake videos on social networks. A recent video shows election workers in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, destroying ballots. Another video shows a person from Haiti, not a US citizen, claiming to be registered and voting in Georgia.

CISA Director Jen Easterly said such content is intended to sow doubt about the voting results, pit Americans against each other and cause unrest.

Experts warn that the risk of Trump supporters reacting with violence will increase as the vote counting process drags on without a winner. In 2020, major television channels in the US did not declare candidate Joe Biden’s victory until 5 days after the election, long after Trump announced that he had won.

Authorities are also paying more attention to the threat from far-right and extremist movements. They said they are trying to find a security solution that helps protect voters when voting but does not make them so scared that they do not dare to vote.

This is difficult to ensure in communities with large populations of color and a history of tensions with police.

“For us, armed security presence at polling places is the new normal, but hopefully minimal and not intimidating to voters. We have worked very hard with law enforcement agencies to fulfill that commitment,” said Linda Farmer, election administrator in Pierce County, Washington state.

Several regions, including North Carolina, have designed special training courses for police to respond quickly to emergencies at polling places. Trainings emphasize that the police’s role is to protect people’s right to vote, not to infringe on it.

Even if election day goes smoothly, other key moments are likely to create security challenges, notably December 17, when electors in each state will cast their votes. myself for the candidates.

In 2020, Trump’s campaign gathered electors in several states he lost to falsely claim he was the winner.

In Georgia, one of this year’s battleground states, a security fence has been erected around the state legislature headquarters. In Arizona, locks and camera systems have been upgraded in several places around the agency’s headquarters.

“Everyone is much more stressed, but still determined,” Bill Burgess, an office worker in Marion County, Oregon, revealed.

For many election officials, the new security adjustments have left them feeling stressed.

When a package arrived at the Wake County, North Carolina, board of elections in late October, officials hesitated to accept it because it was too heavy to hold mail ballots. They began assessing whether there was any threat, before determining that the contents of the box were only boxes of cookies and thank you letters.

Despite their concerns, election officials are still encouraged by the relatively high turnout for mail-in voting as well as in-person early voting. With the number of votes exceeding 70 million as of November 2, this shows that voters have not given up on the election.

“This year’s turnout shows that people are not afraid of what they are about to experience. They trust our process,” said Karen Brinson Bell, head of the North Carolina state election board. know.