‘We’re a Fortress Now’: The Militarization of US Elections Is Here

Drones, snipers, razor wire, sniffer dogs, body armor, bulletproof glass, and 24-hour armed security.
This is not a list of protections in place for a visit by the president of the United States nor the contents of a shipment to frontline troops fighting in Ukraine. This is a list of the security measures election officials in counties across the US have had to implement ahead of Tuesday’s vote as a result of the unprecedented threats they have faced in recent years.
Officials are putting in place the typical final measures to ensure the smooth operation of an election, but beyond checking that they have enough ballots and that machines are working properly, officials are now faced with having to monitor for threats and make sure they have done everything they can to protect themselves and their staff.
“Given the current political environment, the possibility that an event may occur has increased, and our election professionals have responded in kind,” says Tammy Patrick, a former election official in Arizona’s Maricopa County who is now a senior adviser at the nonprofit Bolstering Elections Initiative. “Efforts focusing on the physical security of the voters, election workers, and staff by putting in bulletproof glass, panic buttons, razor wire, and fencing are fairly common, as is the installation of surveillance cameras and systems, cyber protections, and training on de-escalation techniques and response drills.”
Nowhere in the US is the militarization of the election process more evident than in Maricopa County.
The fourth largest county in the nation, Maricopa became ground zero for election denial conspiracists in recent years, after GOP lawmakers sanctioned a bogus recount in 2021, run by the Florida company Cyber Ninjas.
As a result, the county has for years been putting increased security measures in place. “We’re a fortress now,” Stephen Richer, the Maricopa County Recorder, told WIRED back in February, outlining how he had to navigate security fencing, metal detectors, and security checks in order to get into his office.
As the 2024 election approaches, the measures Maricopa officials are putting in place have been ratcheted up significantly.
Officials have added a second layer of security fencing to protect election offices, as well as concrete k-rails, which means election workers will be bused in from offsite locations due to reduced parking spaces. At the country’s tabulation center, every door will be fitted with metal detectors, floodlights will be installed, and on election day the center will be protected by a ring of snipers deployed on roofs around the building, election officials told NBC.
There will also be mounted police on standby outside the building, round-the-clock armed security, and drones in flight over the building, monitoring for approaching threats. The entire election office building is also covered in security cameras that livestream everything online for anyone to watch, a security measure that doubles as a way of offering transparency into its election process.
“The security and safety of our elections and those that help conduct them are paramount in ensuring a smooth election process,” Taylor Kinnerup, communications director for the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office, tells WIRED. “Since January of 2021, our office has increased badge security access, installed permanent barriers, and added additional cybersecurity measures based on the recommendations of law enforcement and other experts.”
The threats against election workers spiked in the wake of the 2020 election, spurred on by Donald Trump’s baseless allegations that the election was stolen. While the threats receded somewhat in between election cycles, they have picked up again in recent months.
WIRED revealed earlier this month that the Department of Homeland Security has issued a series of reports to government agencies warning about the “heightened risk” of right-wing extremists carrying out attacks around the election.
Just last week, the Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force announced charges against four men for threats they made against election officials. “The fact that election workers need to be worried about their security is incomprehensible and unacceptable,” FBI director Chris Wray said in a statement about the threats.
Some of the charges relate to threats made back in 2022; as a result, election officials have been preparing for years for next week’s vote. Since the beginning of last year, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has conducted over 1,000 voluntary physical security assessments at election offices.
One of these assessments was conducted in Pennsylvania’s Luzerne County in late August, with officials from CISA and Homeland Security recommending that barriers be installed to prevent cars from ramming into the ground floor of the building housing the county’s election offices in Wilkes Barre.
“This is a measure taken to safeguard staff, the public, and the ballots,” Luzerne County manager Romilda Crocamo told local TV station WVIA earlier this month as workers installed boulders along the front of the building.
Crocamo also said the county had decided against using drop boxes because they could not adequately protect them. This week, multiple drop boxes in Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington, were set on fire in incidents police say were linked.
In addition to protecting the buildings where election staff work, some high-profile election officials have had to protect themselves.
Arizona secretary of state Adrian Fontes, the top election official in his state, revealed on Monday that he regularly wears a bulletproof vest after a series of threats were posted online and included his home address. In Adams County, Colorado, the county clerk and recorder Josh Zygielbaum has also been advised by local police to wear body armor after someone followed him home after a recent local election.
Zygielbaum recently told USA Today that he has taken the advice and now wears one every day. He has previously used militaristic phrases like “harden the office as a target” to describe his efforts to beef up security, which has included the installation of panic buttons under every desk
Tate Fall, Cobb County, Georgia’s election director, has also installed panic buttons that link directly to emergency services after a poll worker reported an agitated voter during this year’s presidential primary who was carrying a gun.
In some cases, new election offices have been built since the last election, including ones in California’s Los Angeles County and Durham County, North Carolina. These have been built with security in mind and feature bulletproof glass, security cameras, and doors that will open only with the right credentials.
In Los Angeles County, they are also deploying trained sniffer dogs to screen all the mail coming into election offices after a surge in letters sent to officials containing white powder, several of which have tested positive for fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid that can be deadly even in small doses.
As a result, most election offices across the country have Narcan kits on hand, and officials have been trained on how to administer the drug in the case of an accidental opioid overdose. Taking things a step further, in Durham County’s new election office, they have constructed a dedicated mail-sorting room that features a separate exhaust system to prevent potentially hazardous substances contaminating the rest of the office.
“Election workers now need to be experts in security, cybersecurity, public health, and public relations, while handling drastically more information requests and recounts,” Adam Hinds, former Massachusetts state senator and current CEO of the nonprofit Edward M. Kennedy Institute, tells WIRED. “One problem is they are already stretched in terms of funding and resources. As election administration receives more attention, our election workers deserve the resources necessary.”