United States: An election under close surveillance in a country on alert

The National Guard, emergency call buttons, barricaded businesses: the United States is on alert before Tuesday’s presidential election, which will be one of the most secure polls in the history of the country.

While anxiety is at its height on the eve of the vote, the authorities have put in place, at all levels, exceptional measures to strengthen the physical security of electoral staff but also that of the ballot papers themselves.

The FBI has set up a national command post in Washington to monitor threats 24 hours a day, all week. And in Nevada (southwest), Washington state (northwest) and Oregon (northwest), a contingent of the National Guard is mobilized to promote a “safe and smooth election day”.

Emergency call buttons

According to the Pentagon, at least 17 states have placed a total of several hundred soldiers on alert. “I want to make sure we are fully prepared to respond to any additional civil unrest,” said Jay Inslee, the Democratic governor of Washington state.

In this state, where Kamala Harris should easily beat Donald Trump according to polls, mailboxes for depositing postal votes were set on fire last week. Incidents also reported in Oregon and Arizona, where investigations have been opened.

Some of the country’s approximately 100,000 polling stations will also be equipped with emergency call buttons, the company Runbeck Election Services, a specialist in electoral security technologies, confirmed to AFP.

«Surveillance 24 h/24»

For this tense, anxiety-inducing end to the campaign with an uncertain outcome, the alert level is even higher in the key states, those decisive for the final victory.

In Arizona, a “swing state” in the southwest, the electoral headquarters of the most populous county has been transformed into a fortress: the building has been equipped with metal detectors, drones will patrol the sky and precision shooters will be placed on the roofs. Efforts aimed at reassuring voters about the security of the electoral process.

“We followed the recommendations of law enforcement and experts” to strengthen security and allow “the smooth running of the elections,” Taylor Kinnerup of Maricopa County told AFP. “Our systems are secure and our people are ready,” Brad Raffensperger, head of electoral operations for the state of Georgia (southeast), also assured during a press conference on Monday.

In Pennsylvania, even if “it is impossible to prepare for all possible scenarios”, the authorities claim to have reinforced security “at all levels” and set up “24-hour surveillance”, according to a spokesperson. word of the State. And with Donald Trump constantly asserting that the only possibility for him to lose would be if the other side rigged the results, security will be reinforced well beyond election day.

“Many different scenarios”

The 78-year-old Republican still refuses to say whether he will support a peaceful transition and continues to falsely claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him. In this context, and since many officials have been harassed and threatened over the past four years, several states have adopted laws aimed at directly protecting election workers against threats, intimidation and harassment.

In the federal capital, where the specter of the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021 still hangs over the city, certain businesses around the White House are playing it safe and have barricaded themselves. “In many ways, our preparations for 2024 began on January 7, 2021,” said Christopher Rodriguez, a municipal official.

“Let’s be clear: There will be no tolerance for violence in our city,” Washington Police Chief Pamela Smith said at a news conference Monday. The latter assured that even if we had to “wait for the results”, the police are ready “to face many different scenarios.”

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