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In US swing states, officials brace for conspiracy theories and violence reuters
With the U.S. election days just away, officials in the most competitive battleground states are bracing for misinformation, conspiracy theories, threats and possible violence.
In Philadelphia, Detroit and Atlanta, three of former President Donald Trump’s favorite targets for false claims of voter fraud, officials have fortified their operations against a repeat of the chaos of 2020. Philadelphia’s ballot-counting warehouse is now surrounded by fencing topped with barbed wire. In Detroit and Atlanta, some election offices are protected by bullet-proof glass.
In Wisconsin, election workers have been trained on de-escalation techniques and polling stations rearranged so workers have escape routes if they are menaced by protestors.
In Arizona, an
epicenter in 2020 for false claims by Republicans about rigged voting, the secretary of state is working with local officials on how to respond to misinformation, including deep-fake images of purported fraud.
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Throughout his campaign, Trump has repeated the falsehood that he won in 2020 while signaling he would
contest a possible loss to Harris.
On Friday, in a post on Trump’s Truth Social platform, he wrote that there was "rampant Cheating and Skulduggery" in 2020 and threatened election officials and others “involved in unscrupulous behavior” this cycle with prosecution.
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In a virtual meeting for prospective poll workers, an official with the Republican National Committee warned the volunteers that Detroit was not to be trusted. "Because that city, if I could get away with ... you know, burning it to the ground, I would try," said Morgan Ray, the RNC's director of election integrity for Michigan, according to a previously unreported recording of the Sept. 10 meeting obtained by Reuters. Ray and the RNC didn’t respond to requests for comment on her remarks.
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In North Carolina, some county election offices have installed panic buttons, bulletproof glass, security cameras and heavier doors, said State Board of Elections spokesperson Patrick Gannon. Election officials have been trained to defuse tensions with angry activists, he said. Police have been given pocket guides on election law in anticipation of increased challenges.
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In the small northern Wisconsin town of Caswell, clerk Tamaney “Sam” Augustin has shifted poll workers across the room, so they faced, rather than sat next to, the door — with two exits directly behind them.
“We’ve never had anything happen,” she said, “but we live in a different world now.”
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