Bconcrete rears, high wire fence, armed agents inside: on the eve of the American presidential election, the electoral center of Phoenix, Arizona, resembles a fortress.
These security measures are becoming sadly usual in this key state, undermined by electoral conspiracy.
“What is at stake is very important and very serious, it is the foundation of this democratic republic, namely our elections,” warned Bill Gates, one of the elections officials in Maricopa County, the most populated in Arizona.
Donald Trump lost by less than 10,500 votes in 2020 against Joe Biden in Arizona. At the time, armed demonstrators had protested for several nights in front of the county’s electoral center, in the middle of Phoenix, during the counting of ballots.
The Republican billionaire never admitted his defeat and in four years, the Grand Canyon State has become a hotbed of electoral conspiracy in the United States.
False theories about ballot “rigging” proliferate there, often fueled by local Trumpists, who have taken control of the Republican Party.
To combat this mistrust, the Maricopa County Election Center now has cameras permanently trained on ballot storage areas. Video surveillance is broadcast on the internet constantly.
“We tried to be as transparent as possible,” recalled Mr. Gates, a Republican elected official who resisted pressure from Donald Trump four years ago.
“But we ask for something in return,” insisted this official, victim in recent years of a deluge of hatred: that the candidates who will be defeated at the end of these elections “accept the results”.
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