Unprecedented steps to protect US election workers and ballots include bulletproof glass and panic buttons

New-Voting-protections Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios

Ecclesiastes 5:8 If you see the poor oppressed in a district, and justice and rights denied, do not be surprised at such things; for one official is eyed by a higher one, and over them both are others higher still

Important Takeaways:

  • From bulletproof glass to panic buttons, jurisdictions across the U.S. are taking unprecedented steps to protect election workers and ballots amid concerns about voter intimidation, fraud and even violence at the polls.
  • Officials are already on edge: This week, the FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service launched an investigation after officials in 16 states reported receiving suspicious packages.
  • Several secretaries of state reported being mailed letters containing white powder.
  • Election officials in Durham County, N.C., soon will move into a new facility equipped with bulletproof glass at the front desk, panic buttons to summon help in any emergencies, a network of security cameras and a separate exhaust system where mail-in ballots will be processed.
    • On Election Day, each of the county’s 59 polling site coordinators will receive employee badges with panic buttons.
    • GPS tracking will be used to follow ballots’ chain of custody as they’re escorted from polling places to county offices.
    • At the end of the night, the chief election judge at each polling place will take ballots to the county’s election headquarters with an escort — an election judge from the opposite party.
  • Similar measures are being taken in Cobb County, Ga., to protect ballots, the roughly 2,200 poll watchers there and hundreds of other permanent and temporary staffers who’ll be working on election night.
  • The vote totals in Cobb County — a mostly Democratic suburb of Atlanta in a much-watched swing state — will draw national interest on Election Night.
  • Between the lines: Security measures aside, Cobb County Director of Elections Tate Fall says the county is using new digital tools to automate parts of the election process and increase transparency.
    • One digitizes the chain of custody of applications for mail-in ballots. Officials receive real-time updates on how many applications the county has received and where they are in the voting process.
    • Georgia also is using a new audit tool that will compare images of ballots to the results that are uploaded to reporting systems on Election Day.

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