He has the look of those who have seen a lot and experienced a lot. “Four years. We are exhausted”, he sighs. At this stage of counting the ballots – these are still early votes – Stephen Richer, one of the operations managers, allows himself a little recreation outside the bunker, the Maricopa County elections center, in Arizona. He does not yet know that, a few hours later, Donald Trump will declare himself the winner and that the state results, considered crucial for months, will be much less so. At midnight, Wednesday, November 6, the Maricopa County communications center closes its doors. Inside, employees continue to count: 968,471 votes for Trump (or 50.4%) against 937,248 for Kamala Harris (48.8%). But only the cameras that provide live stream coverage are awake.
Officials in this county, which alone represents 62% of Arizona voters, are relieved: no incident has fueled suspicion – paranoia for some – of extremists over the electoral process. There was practically no queue in front of the polling stations: two minutes on average and you only had to consult the county application on your phone to anticipate the waiting time in each of the 426 polling stations and make your choice.
Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers American presidential election: in Arizona, the pro-Trump conversion of a Latino family, who had voted Democratic for four generations
Read later
Seen from the bunker parking lot, the 2024 election – the sixtieth since the founding of the republic – is painful to watch. The county sheriff, Russ Skinner, is himself sorry. “You see the difference with 2020 “, he emphasizes, deploring the strengthening of security.
Vendetta against “traitors”
After the November 2020 election, hundreds of armed Trump loyalists laid siege to the center for several days, convinced that the Democrats were “ want » the election thanks to the generalization of postal voting during the Covid-19 pandemic. The billionaire has never conceded his defeat (by only 10,457 votes) and the State has become the mecca of conspiracy theorists and deniers (who reject the election results).
The November 2020 incident at « everything changed »explains Sheriff Skinner. The county invested $10 million (9.2 million euros) to modernize and secure the counting center. Cameras were installed, concrete blocks and a metal barrier.
You have 57.73% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
