Officials are sounding the alarm on violent threats and ramping up security precautions to protect voting sites and election workers, and to ensure this presidential election, one of the most contentious in history, will be free and fair, according to a report.
Election officials across the country have been the subject of threats and harassment by some who believe Donald Trump’s lies that the 2020 election was stolen from him by Democrats and President Joe Biden.
Political violence continues to surge as a deeply polarized electorate turns out to vote for the next president.
The race between Vice President Kamala Harris and Trump is so narrow that results may not be known on November 5 — and possibly days or even weeks later — increasing the stakes and the risk for election officials.
Ballot drop boxes were recently set ablaze in Washington and Oregon, and in Michigan workers counted early voting ballots in a secured area blocked off by police and a metal detector, Bloomberg noted. And U.S. intelligence officials have warned about the rise of extremist violence and plots to disrupt the vote.
The Department of Homeland Security has assessed the physical security of more than 1,000 election offices and polling locations, as well as carried out 700 cybersecurity reviews and conducted more than 400 training sessions, according to Bloomberg.
Homeland Security has also designated January 6, 2025, as a National Special Security Event, similar to other high-alert level events like presidential inaugurations and U.N. meetings that might be a target of terrorism, trying to prevent another January 6, 2021, when a pro-Trump mob rioted at the U.S. Capitol.
“My hope is that people are not afraid to go vote or to serve,” Ruie LaVoie, the Baltimore County Board of Elections director, told the news outlet.
“You can talk about the threats, but it is better for our voters and our democracy and our country if we instead focus on and talk about all that we’re doing to have safe and secure elections,” La Voie said.
The vast army of election workers who help people to voting booths, hand out “I Voted” stickers, and ensure the counting of ballots go off without a hitch have received training about how to defuse situations before they turn violent, the report said.
Despite the training, some fear the act of one bad person could spiral into violence.
“It only takes one person to decide to take violent action against people they think are stealing the election from them at any one of these polling places,” Alex Strong, a director of development at the University of Arizona who has been a poll worker in Tucson, told Bloomberg.
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