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Georgia election officials are tackling security issues with panic buttons

Online Niel November 2, 2024

A Texas poll worker punched him in the face. Ballot boxes in Washington and Oregon caught fire, blowing up hundreds of votes. A teenager from Florida manually a machete at the people lined up to vote.

Violence catch the election. And it’s not even November 5th yet.

In years past, the administrative hustle and bustle on election day would not have been cause for alarm. But things are different this time. Officials have spent most of 2024 preparing for this moment.

Months before Election Day, Tate Fall went before the Georgia Board of Elections with an urgent request: provide panic buttons and armed security for her poll workers.

Fall is the elections director for Cobb County, Georgia, one of the most densely populated areas in the state. She is worried about the safety of her election workers — mostly older volunteers and retired staff — as tensions rise over the 2024 race.

The increased security measures are “essentially for their peace of mind,” Fall explains to USA TODAY. Still, she says, “It’s what keeps me up at night.”

The Georgia Board of Elections has approved more than $2.4 million for increased security. Protections include additional sheriffs at polling places, a full-time security guard for the Cobb County elections office and radios for all election workers. They are the same radios that the police use and are equipped with a panic button.

In Chatham County, along the Georgia coast, officials confirmed they have also developed a security plan with the local Board of Elections and police department.

“Chatham County is also coordinating with the police departments in each municipality in the county to have a presence at the polling places in their jurisdictions,” said Will Peebles, Chatham County Deputy Director of Public Information.

It may seem extreme, but protections like panic buttons, bulletproof glass and increased police presence are becoming more common at polling booths across the country.

Panic at the polls

Runbeck Election Services has been working in elections for over 50 years. Prior to 2024, the company supplied polling stations with ballot printers, mail sorters and other equipment.

But this year, through a partnership with Response Technologies, Runbeck is selling a new device: personal panic buttons for election workers.

The piece of wearable technology is about the size of a standard security badge and can be worn around a lanyard or secured in a pocket. It is equipped with a button that connects to Bluetooth. If a worker feels threatened, they can press the button and the device alerts the appropriate authorities, such as the local police, an election director or a polling station manager.

The company has sold about 1,000 panic buttons so far this election season.

Runbeck CEO Jeff Ellington told USA TODAY he was surprised by the number of requests from election officials across the country. Swing states have expressed particular interest in the device.

“It’s also the second-tier states,” Ellington says. “They’re the states that everybody thought were either in Republican hands or in Democratic hands. And now you shuffle the deck from the Democratic side, and that changes some of the polling.”

He notes that places like North Carolina — one of the “second-tier” states now in contention with Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee — have asked about getting panic buttons.

“Election officials, even outside of the swing states, have been harassed and threatened because nobody really knows how it’s going to go,” Ellington says.

Having access to devices like panic buttons has become a grim necessity not just for poll workers, but for county and state officials as well, Ellington noted.

“It’s heartbreaking what the officials have to endure as well. Because it’s usually their local constituents who make these threats,” he says, his voice cracking with emotion. “There are people with whom they were part of the PTA or whose children played sports together. And now, all of a sudden, people think they’re somehow corrupt.”

The police are training for election day

For enhanced security measures such as panic buttons to work, local police need to “know what the rules of the game are,” says election security expert Chris Harvey.

As the elections director for the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office in the 2020 race, Harvey has an intimate understanding of how rhetoric and threats of violence can have an impact the safety of election workers.

He combined this experience with his time as a former police officer to develop the first state-mandated electoral preparation for law enforcement. The training teaches Georgia officers the basics of state election laws and illegal activities at the polls, such as bringing a firearm and racketeering.

Harvey sees the training as essential this year, as Georgia has gone from being a reliably red state to a blue state in the 2020 election. Tensions have been rising ever since.

“Georgia is a very purple state politically,” says Harvey. “So there’s going to be a lot of attention, a lot of press and a lot of energy in Georgia.”

All of this could lead to greater risks of violence at polling stations as voters and officials navigate the 2024 election spotlight.

“We want to make sure that if an officer responds to a call, they are familiar with the election laws,” says Harvey. “Whether they’re going to a polling office, an election office or an audit, they need to have that basic understanding. If things get volatile, don’t you want the men and women responding to know the rules of the game?”

Despite talk of threats on Election Day, Fall and her Cobb County election workers are confident things will go smoothly.

“Everyone seems really excited. And my employees are incredibly appreciative of the security improvements,” says Fall. “Overall, I think the tone is hopeful and positive.”

Melissa Cruz is an election reporting fellow focusing on voter access issues for the USA TODAY Network. You can reach her at [email protected] or on X, formerly Twitter, at @MelissaWrites22.