'Panic buttons,' SWAT teams: United States braces for election unrest

Panic buttons for poll workers, special weapons teams deployed on rooftops, and the National Guard on standby. 

The 2024 United States presidential election campaign has been particularly volatile. Security for Election Day on Tuesday is being ramped up to unprecedented levels given concerns over possible civil unrest, election chicanery, or violence against election workers.

The states of Oregon, Washington and Nevada have activated the National Guard, the FBI has set up a command post to monitor threats, and security has been bolstered at many of the nation's nearly 100,000 polling stations.

Nineteen states US – including key election battlegrounds Arizona, Michigan and Nevada – have enacted election security enhancement laws since 2020, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

With Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump deadlocked at the climax of the race, authorities are keen to reassure jittery Americans that their votes are secure. But they are also bolstering physical security for election operations across the country.

Runbeck Election Services, which provides security technology for poll operations, confirmed to AFP Monday it has ordered some 1,000 panic buttons for clients that include election facilities and their workers.

These small devices worn as a lanyard or held in a pocket are paired with a user's cell phone and contact law enforcement or other authorities in case of emergency.

Officials in the seven most closely watched swing states are eager to convey confidence in a secure and fair election.

"Here in Georgia, it is easy to vote and hard to cheat. Our systems are secure and our people are ready," Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told reporters on Monday.

Fringe activists might bring some "extra drama" to the proceedings, he said. 

But Raffensperger added that he expects the election to be safe in Georgia, a swing state where Trump is facing charges over his interference in the 2020 election by demanding officials "find" enough votes to overturn Joe Biden's victory there.

In Arizona, a southwestern swing state that became a fulcrum of election night unrest and conspiracy theories in 2020, officials have turned the state's main election and ballot counting facility, in Maricopa County, into a veritable fortress.

It now has wrought-iron fencing, barbed wire, armed guards and a SWAT presence on the roof, according to officials.

The efforts have been aimed not only at beefing up physical security and countering disinformation but at reassuring voters that the process is secure.

"Since January of 2021, our office has increased badge security access, installed permanent barriers, and added additional cybersecurity measures based on the recommendations of law enforcement and other experts," Taylor Kinnerup, communications director for the Maricopa County Recorder's Office, told AFP on Monday.

Layers of security 

Pennsylvania's Department of State, which oversees elections in the nation's largest swing state, said its preparation includes multi-layered defences of infrastructure and partnerships with security and law enforcement agencies, although it did not provide details.

The new layers of security follow the election chaos from 2020, particularly after Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol building on January 6, 2021 aiming to halt certification of the election results that confirmed Biden as the winner.

Officials are also warning of major cyber and hacking threats, particularly from abroad.

Russia, Iran and China are conducting influence operations to undermine US confidence in election legitimacy and "to stoke partisan discord," Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency director Jen Easterly recently told NBC News.

This "firehose of disinformation," she added, is "creating very real physical threats to election workers and election officials and their families."

Attention is also focused on social media sites like Telegram, which The New York Times reports is being used by right-wing groups to organise poll watchers and prepare them to possibly dispute votes in Democratic areas.

Meanwhile in Washington, authorities have warned of a "fluid, unpredictable security environment" in the days and possibly weeks after polls close. Businesses in the capital have begun boarding up their storefronts in anticipation of potential unrest.