A resident of Dixville Notch presents their ID while checking in to cast their ballots in the US election at midnight in the living room of the Tillotson House at the Balsams Grand Resort, marking the first votes in the US election, in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire on Tuesday. — AFP
A security fence surrounds a Las Vegas building where a Nevada county tabulates votes. An Arizona sheriff has placed his department on high alert to guard against potential violence, with drones and snipers ready for deployment. The National Guard has been activated in 19 states so far to help maintain peace. As a tense America votes on Tuesday for either Republican Donald Trump or Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris for president, concerns about potential political violence have prompted officials to take a variety of measures to bolster security during and after Election Day. Many of the most visible moves can be seen in the battleground states that will decide the presidential election, such as Nevada, where protests by Trump supporters erupted after the 2020 election. This year, a security fence surrounds the Las Vegas tabulation center, the scene of some of those protests.
A defense official said on Monday that Alabama, Arizona, Delaware, Iowa, Illinois, North Carolina, New Mexico, Oregon, Wisconsin, and Washington state have current National Guard missions, while Washington DC, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia have troops on standby. In Arizona, a similar metal fence has been erected at the Maricopa County vote tabulation center in downtown Phoenix, a flashpoint in 2020 for rigged election conspiracy theories and threats against election officials. County Sheriff Russ Skinner said his department will be on 'high alert' for threats and violence and has instructed staff to be available for duty. 'We will have a lot of resources out there, a lot of staff, a lot of equipment,' he added, noting deputies will use drones to monitor activity around polling places and snipers and other reinforcements will be on standby for deployment if violence appears likely.
Concerned about the potential for protests or even violence, several Arizona schools and churches that served as voting centers in the past will not serve as polling stations this year, a local election official told Reuters. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS), which has over 400,000 members in Arizona, has offered several polling locations to fill the gap. A dozen or so community leaders from across the state and from various political backgrounds and cultures have formed a committee to focus on stemming political violence, according to member Jane Andersen, an LDS church member and Protecting Democracy Specialist for Arizona at Mormon Women for Ethical Government. The group says it is ready to tap into a broad network, including faith leaders, who can help spread factual information to counter misinformation-fueled unrest.
In the battleground state of Michigan in 2020, Trump supporters descended on the downtown Detroit convention hall and began pounding on windows as the counting of absentee ballots carried into a second day. Yellow bicycle racks this year lined both sides of the boulevard on which it sits. Visitors must go through metal detectors and about 15 police officers are patrolling the cavernous hall. Daniel Baxter, Detroit's chief operating officer for absentee voting and special projects, said police also are on the roof and surrounding the building. Eight days of early pre-processing of mail-in ballots have passed peacefully, Baxter said. Peter Simi, a sociology professor at Chapman University in California who has researched threats against public officials, said the worst scenario would be Trump losing and not conceding defeat. Rather than a repeat of the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters, he said conflict could be 'dispersed, diffuse events across multiple locations' that would be more difficult for law enforcement to address.
Precautions stretch beyond the battleground states. Oregon and Washington state authorities have said they have activated the National Guard. Some storefront windows in Washington, DC and elsewhere have been covered by plywood. Back in Las Vegas, Faviola Garibay surveyed the security fence around the linen-colored building where Clark County officials tabulate the votes and where voters such as her can drop election ballots. 'The fencing, the presence of police here, it seems secure,' she said. 'I feel safe voting.'
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