In Rockwall County, each of Chris Lynch’s election workers has panic buttons at their desks.
The elections administrator brought in the devices about two years ago in case of an emergency. The office door — which used to stay open — is also now locked, allowing officials to vet each person they allow inside.
“If you’re not vigilant 24/7/365, you’re really not doing your job,” Lynch said. “I tell the folks — I’ve got four ladies that work for me — it’s like, ‘Hey, you don’t know when crazy is coming through that door.’ We’ve all got to have a heightened sense of awareness.”
Across the nation, counties are preparing for Election Day with elevated vigilance. In some states, that’s come in the form of bulletproof glass, boarded-up windows, rock fortifications, panic buttons and de-escalation training, according to The New York Times.
Such measures come as threats of political violence and unrest have appeared more prevalent ahead of Tuesday’s general election in the U.S., which has already seen a host of brazen crimes. Former president Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, survived two assassination attempts earlier this year, and early voting has drawn its own share of incidents.
A man in Philadelphia threatened to skin alive a party official recruiting volunteer poll watchers, according to a federal complaint. Tempe police in Arizona said a man was arrested on suspicion of shooting into the Democratic Party’s campaign office on three occasions in recent months. Authorities suspect he was plotting a mass casualty attack, according to The Associated Press.
In San Antonio last month, a man in a hat supporting Trump punched an election worker who told him that wearing items endorsing a candidate isn’t allowed, the AP reported. Texas law prohibits clothing endorsing or opposing a candidate inside polling places.
The increased risk of violence during this year’s contentious election cycle is understood by North Texas elections administrators. Election officials here haven’t reported crimes of that magnitude, but said they’ve kept an eye on incidents elsewhere to inform their own security preparations.
“The climate’s charged,” said Bruce Sherbet, Collin County’s elections administrator. “There’s a lot of emotions with this election and very strong opinions with this election. In terms of people being on edge, I think there is some tension, obviously. We all know that and recognize it.”
Local law enforcement officials would not disclose specific plans or officers’ schedules, but several told The Dallas Morning News they’ve implemented training and plans, and are ready to make adjustments if issues arise.
Dallas police spokesperson Lt. Tramese Jones said the city has not seen a higher volume of political threats or attacks on poll workers during early voting.
Still, the police department has prepared for the possibility of election unrest.
Interim Dallas police Chief Michael Igo told the city’s public safety committee on Tuesday the department altered officers’ schedules in recent months for more training in the event of protests. The department’s “Special Response Group” team gets specialized crowd-control training for civil unrest, disorder and demonstrations. Jones would not specify how much overtime was approved for election purposes, referring a reporter to file an open records request.
Dallas police are sharing intelligence with other agencies, Jones said, and offered additional help to the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department, which oversees many safety procedures during the election process. Douglas Sisk, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s department, declined to answer questions about their plans and whether it has received any security guidance.
Jones said people should call 911 if they see anything suspicious or abnormal. “We will continue to remain vigilant and visible. As always, it is our top priority to maintain the safety of the people who live, work, and visit our city,” Jones said.
Elections administrator safety
With an abundance of conspiracy theories and allegations of voter fraud in recent years, protection for election officials has become more pressing in some counties.
Heider Garcia, Dallas County’s elections administrator, did not respond this week to multiple requests over phone and email for an interview about election safety. He has previously advocated for legislation to better protect election officials.
Garcia told the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary in 2022 that he, his family and his staff were threatened while he served as Tarrant County’s elections administrator in 2020. People wrote online that he should be hunted down and his lifeless body should be hung in public. He said he installed security cameras around his home after his address was leaked online.
“Can you imagine the level of stress this put on us?” Garcia said during a hearing about protecting election workers. “I could not sleep that night, I just sat in the living room until around 3:00 a.m., just waiting to see if anyone had read this and decided to act on it.”
Lynch, Rockwall’s elections administrator who said he served in the U.S. Army for more than two decades, said he hasn’t worried for his own safety but knows it “comes with the job” that his personal and private life are “susceptible to people that are just crazy.”
Rockwall County has reported at least two instances during early voting of people being unruly toward election workers and voters, he said. Ideally, he’d want a police officer at every location on Election Day, but it’s not possible to do so from a staffing perspective, Lynch said.
“The environment has changed so much in the last eight years as far as just the general attitude of people toward election officials and this narrative of distrust and mis- and disinformation,” Lynch said. “It definitely makes our jobs more difficult because it’s impossible to have a rational conversation with an irrational person.”
Sherbet said Collin County’s early voting — where more than 408,000 people cast their ballots — has gone just as smoothly as past years. He believes the risk of tense incidents that can escalate is especially high in swing states, but officials still try to prepare for any situation.
He said officials have trained judges and poll workers about de-escalating tensions if someone comes in angry or on edge.
“It’s just one of those things where you have your eyes open and just understand what’s going on around you,” Sherbet said.
Early voting is a good indicator for how Election Day will go in terms of security, he said.
“I’ve had no reports — and that’s just this election — of threats, of violence or actions that resulted in violence,” Sherbet said.
“So, I guess maybe I’ve just been very lucky and I’m going to knock on wood.”
Voter intimidation
While acts of violence spur headlines and grab attention nationwide, election-related crimes also occur in forms of voter intimidation.
There are always individual instances of people encountering voter intimidation, said Ashley Harris, an attorney at the ACLU of Texas. During early voting this year, the election has been “overwhelmingly good and smooth,” she said.
“One of the big things we’re seeing is high turnout and more people voting in person, longer lines, which is to be expected,” Harris said. “People should be prepared for [it], and not alarmed by [it], but you have an opportunity to go vote with [the] community.”
The Justice Department has said it will send monitors to polls across the U.S. on Election Day, including in Dallas County, to watch for compliance with federal voting rights laws.
The department regularly visits precincts during elections. But this year, the number of cities and counties expecting monitors will be nearly double compared to the 2020 election.
Harris said that while voting has been going well, issues to look for could include being threatened by anyone over political affiliation, race or other attributes. Guns are not allowed at polling places. Also, no one should not make it so other people cannot enter a polling place or made to feel threatened by force or intimidation, she said.
”They shouldn’t feel any intimidation from others when they go to vote,” Harris said.
If there’s trouble, the ACLU recommends reaching out to a poll worker, the county elections office or calling the election protection hotline, which is provided by a nonpartisan coalition of organizations for voter rights.
The hotline has nonpartisan poll monitor volunteers who can stay outside the 100-foot boundary at polls to handle questions and observe locations, Harris said. The hotline also has attorneys who help evaluate whether federal or state laws are being broken, she said.
The line typically receives calls asking about polling locations, voter registration and rules around voting. The election protection hotline provides information in English at 866-687-8683, and in Spanish at 888-839-8682. Phone numbers for other languages can be found at texasvoterprotection.org.
‘Voting is a right’
While some counties plan to place officers near polling places in case of emergencies, the presence of law enforcement at polling places has been criticized as a potential form of voter intimidation. In creating safety plans for Election Day, many North Texas police officials acknowledged such concerns.
Arlington police spokesperson Tim Ciesco said the city hasn’t historically encountered issues at polling places, and the department doesn’t anticipate that changing. That said, he added, “we’re certainly cognizant of the current political climate across the country.”
He said officers may patrol areas near polling places more frequently on Election Day, but the department’s goal “is to have as limited a presence at polling places as possible, so that it does not cause concern and/or potentially deter a citizen from voting.”
Arlington police officers were encouraged to pivot to elections officials at the polls instead of directly contacting voters or campaigners — but if there is a safety concern or incident that rises to a criminal offense, “we will certainly intervene,” Ciesco said.
Voters and election workers should feel safe so the democratic process can play out at each polling place, Ciesco said.
“Free and fair elections are the foundation of our democracy,” he said. “We will not tolerate any criminal activity meant to deter, intimidate, or harass someone from exercising their Constitutional right to vote.”
In Plano, officers will have a uniformed presence at each polling place, but “in such a manner as to not interfere or intimidate in any voting activities,” said police spokesperson Det. J.D. Minton. Other officers will be on standby, which isn’t uncommon, he said.
Some polling places identified as having a higher volume of voters will be staffed accordingly, Minton said, but declined to specify which locations. Minton added that police are monitoring social media sites and are in constant contact with local, state and federal agencies.
“Voting is a right and every citizen has the same opportunities to exercise that right to elect their representatives in local, state and federal governments,” he said.