Snipers Deployed to Protect Election Workers as Officials Fear Threats
Snipers will be deployed to protect a tabulation center in Arizona around Election Day, amid fears for the safety of workers counting ballots.
The last American election, in 2020, saw political tensions peak with the U.S. Capitol breached on January 6, 2021, before the years of calls to overturn the results and accusations of election fraud that followed.
Now, officials have broken down what measures they have taken to protect presidential election workers as November 5 looms.
In Arizona’s Maricopa County, the largest county in one of the most important battleground states, snipers will be deployed on the roof to protect its tabulation center, where votes will be counted.
The center will also install metal detectors and security at every entrance, according to election officials who shared their plans with NBC News.
Drones will be used to watch overhead, and law enforcement will make use of security cameras and floodlights.
On top of this, there are now two layers of security fencing around the center with plans to bus in some workers from off-site parking.
Maricopa County was one of the main battlegrounds for claims pedaled by Donald Trump and his supporters that President Joe Biden had won the 2020 election through fraud.
Biden won the county with a thin margin of 50.3 percent, compared to Donald Trump‘s 48.1 percent, and Trump claimed the state’s election was rigged.
While there were isolated issues with some voting machines, investigations and courts only found 182 potentially fraudulent votes in all of Arizona. That number was far fewer than the 10,457 vote margin that delivered the state to Biden.
Other parts of the country are also beefing up security in different ways, which include using bulletproof vests and regular law enforcement patrols.
Bulletproof Vests in Colorado
Some county clerks and election officials have decided to have bulletproof vests on hand, while others have installed bulletproof glass, Colorado’s Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold told NBC News.
Election equipment will be under 24/7 surveillance and only accessible with a specific key card.
Griswold said: “We have layers of security—we have military and law enforcement joining our team to protect our cyber support systems. People are voting on paper so that, of course, can’t be hacked, but what they’re doing is protecting our support systems.
“We are definitely on top of it and take all of our security very seriously. But the number one thing we do is vote on a piece of paper.”
Police Patrols in Georgia
In Cobb County, Georgia, officers will be sent to patrol each early voting site and local precincts. An emergency operations center has also been set up, where the sheriff’s office, fire department and local utilities will monitor CCTV and social media to keep on top of any potential threat.
The county was initially planning to bring in a panic button system, for election workers to contact emergency services quickly, but they ended up opting for police radios instead, after struggling to implement the necessary technology.
FBI Warns Of ‘Election-Related Violence’
It all comes after the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warned about “election-rate violence” last month.
“The Department has no tolerance for violence and illegal threats of violence against public officials, government offices, and election infrastructure,” Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte wrote at the time. “These crimes are attacks on our democracy.”
In the letter, first obtained by Politico, Uriarte said: “In recent years, we have seen a dangerous increase in threats of violence directed at election officials, workers, and volunteers, as well as to federal and state officials, judges, prosecutors, law enforcement officers, and other public servants.”
Newsweek has contacted teams for both the Harris campaign and the Trump campaign for any comment on safety concerns.
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