Election Workers Prepare for Violence on Election Night

Cobb County, GA (WorkersCompensation.com) – After months of preparation, election officials in Cobb County, Ga., are readying their workers with handheld radios and panic buttons.

Fears of an escalation in violence during election night prompted Tate Fall, Cobb County, Ga., elections director, to go before the Georgia Board of Elections to ask for protective measures for her workers. Cobb County is one of the most densely populated areas of the state and Fall’s poll workers are mostly older volunteers and retired former staff members.

Fall told USA Today the measures are necessary to ease the fears of workers and election officials.

“It’s what keeps me up at night,” she said.

The board ultimately approved more than $2.4 million for increased security including additional sheriffs at polling places, a full-time security guard for the Cobb County elections office and radios equipped with panic buttons for all poll workers.

The fears of violence aren’t out of place. In Texas, an election worker was assaulted during early voting last month.

Officials said a Texas man wearing a hat supporting former President Donald Trump punched an election worker. The election worker, a 69-year-old man, told the man that wearing items endorsing a candidate was prohibited at voting sites, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said Oct. 25.

The election worker was treated at the scene at a San Antonio library and returned to his post, officials said. The suspect was arrested and charged with assaulting an elderly person, officials said, and could face additional charges.

Salazar and elections officials urged voters to stay calm and patient during the long waits to vote during the election season.

"Thankfully there was nothing life-threatening about what occurred, but it was still an ugly incident," Salazar said.

In Washington and Oregon, someone set fire to ballot boxes, burning hundreds of early ballots. Officials said only a small number of ballots were completely destroyed and that election officials were able to contact the voters who cast the remaining ballots to re-vote. In Florida, a machete-wielding teenager was arrested after he and a group of 16- and 17-year-old men tried to intimidate voters outside of a public library early voting site. 

Caleb James Williams, 18, was arrested and charged with aggravated assault on a person 65 years of age or older and improper exhibition of a firearm or dangerous weapon after he, “brandished a machete in an aggressive, threatening posture over his head,” Neptune Beach Police Chief Michael J. Key said in a press conference.

"The group was there for no other reason but for ill intentions to cause a disturbance," Key said. "This is not an incident of solely a First Amendment protected right, but rather one where they were simply there to cause a ruckus."

In Chatham County, Georgia, officials said they have worked with the local Board of Elections and the police to develop a security plan for election workers.

“Chatham County is also coordinating with police departments from each municipality in the county to have a presence at polling locations within their jurisdictions,” Chatham County Assistant Director of Public Information Will Peebles says.

It is a precaution many election boards are taking.

Runbeck Election Services usually provides ballot printers, mail sorters and other election equipment to voting precincts. This year, however, the company is working with Response Technologies to provide precincts with personal panic buttons for poll workers. The wearable technology is about the size of a standard security badge and can be worn on a lanyard or put in a pocket. With a press of a button, the device can alert authorities, like local police, a poll site manager or an elections official.

So far, the company has sold about 1,000 panic buttons this election season. Runbeck CEO Jeff Ellington told USA Today he was surprised at the number of requests the company received, primarily in swing states.

“It’s also the second-tier swing states too,” Ellington says. “It’s the states that everybody thought were either in the Republicans’ hands or the Democrats’ hands. And now you’re shuffling the deck on the Democrats’ side and that’s flipping some of that polling.”

“Election officials, even outside of swing states, have been tormented and threatened, because no one really knows how it’s going to go,” Ellington said. “It’s heartbreaking what the officials have to put up with too. Because it’s usually their local constituents making these threats. It’s people they were part of the PTA with, or their kids played sports together. And now all of a sudden, people think they’re somehow corrupted.”

A Brennan Center for Justice poll of election officials in April of last year found that nearly half of all local election officials said they fear for the safety of their colleagues. Many of the officials said they have faced death threats, online harassment and abuse.

The center said Cathy Darling Allen, the clerk and registrar of voters in Shasta County, California reported she feared for the safety of her staff after discovering a surveillance camera planted at the back entrance of her office used by poll workers during the 2022 primary. The report said at least one other official discovered a wireless video camera aimed at his front door.

According to the survey, one in three election officials have been harassed, abused, or threatened because of their job. And additionally, more than one in five are concerned about physical assault on the job in future elections. Forty-five percent of election officials worry about their colleagues, and more than half of them expressed concern that the attacks will make it more difficult to retrain or recruit election workers in future elections.

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