As Election Day nears, police chiefs and sheriffs around the country are bracing themselves for violent threats against election workers, turmoil at voting sites and intimidation of voters.
In Maricopa County, Arizona, multiple emergency hubs will be running on Nov. 5. In Georgia, all new police officers are now required to study election law. In Omaha, Nebraska, the sheriff has even inspected ballot-counting machines in response to residents’ concerns. And across the nation, local law enforcement officials have been huddling with election officials to game out how they will handle bomb threats, SWAT hoaxes and white powdery substances if they materialize on Election Day.
It all points to what many law enforcement officials and election experts see as a dire new normal: elections in America marred by threats, mischief and violence.
“It is a new reality,” said Meghan Noland, the executive director of the Major County Sheriffs Association. “What we preach is that, while we hope that Election Day is peaceful and calm and safe for everyone, hope is not a strategy; preparation is.
Everything changd four years ago, these officials and experts say. In the months leading up to the 2020 election, Donald Trump claimed that Democrats would steal the presidency from him. Then, as votes were counted and his loss to Joe Biden became undeniable, he and his lawyers spread lies and conspiracy theories about election administration and poll workers. His supporters disrupted vote counting in Detroit, terrorized Georgia election workers and, on Jan. 6, 2021, infiltrated and ransacked the Capitol.
Now, as Trump once again promotes falsehoods about election fraud and denigrates election officials, law enforcement officers worry that the floodgates to violence are open.
With less than a week until Election Day, attacks on the mechanisms of democracy have begun. In recent days, ballots were damaged by suspected arson incidents at mailboxes or dropboxes in Arizona, Massachusetts, Washington and Oregon.
Justin Smith, the retired sheriff of Larimer County, Colorado, compared the atmosphere of election threats — and the pressure on law enforcement to adapt — to the epidemic of school shootings over the past 25 years.
“I think 2020 was to elections what 1999 and Columbine probably was to school safety planning,” Smith said.
In Arizona, a hotbed of unrest
No state has faced more election-related tumult over the past four years than Arizona. Just ask the state’s top election official, Secretary of State Adrian Fontes.
Fontes testified at a court hearing this week that he almost always wears a bulletproof vest when he’s out in public. The striking disclosure is a sign of how much things have changed in the historically red state that has recently turned purple.