Ahead of Election Day, officials prepare for protests and possible violence

The bushes in front of City Hall in Green Bay, Wisconsin, have been removed. On election night, the street out front will be blocked off. These "hardening" measures were suggested by the city police chief to protect the ballots being counted inside, said Celestine Jeffreys, Green Bay's city clerk.

As threats against election workers have grown more violent, election officials across the country have spent months coordinating to protect voters, ballots and poll workers at an unprecedented level with emergency management agencies. Amid that coordination, the centralized locations where ballots are counted on election night have emerged as a key place needing protection. More than a dozen county and city election officials spoke with USA TODAY about what they are doing to make sure they can count ballots at central ballot counting locations once polls close, no matter what happens outside.

Election officials have built new warehouses where ballots will be counted under increased security. Local and state law enforcement have run through multiple scenarios for large crowds descending on the ballot counting locations. Some jurisdictions have reduced the number of observers allowed to attend and required them to obtain credentials far in advance.

Despite polls showing a toss-up race in key swing states, former President Donald Trump is already saying he can only lose if there is massive fraud. He has without evidence named Detroit, Milwaukee and Philadelphia as places where fraud could occur.

Some prominent pro-Trump Republicans are already saying supporters will go to ballot counting locations if the winner of the presidential election isn't clear on Election Day.

Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump's first White House national security adviser who played a central role in 2020 efforts to overturn the election results, said on Oct. 20 on the right-wing podcast American Truth Project that the results should be known on election night.

Otherwise, Flynn warned, "I do feel like people are going to go to those locations where there’s counting and there could actually be violence because people are so upset after 2020."

Jim Burch, president of the National Policing Institute, a nonprofit research organization, told USA TODAY the central ballot counting facilities have become an "incredible point of potential risk and concern."

Danielle Alvarez, senior adviser for the Trump Campaign and RNC, said in a statement that they have recruited over 230,000 volunteers for their election integrity program to "bring transparency and accountability to our election process."

'Stop the count'

Election officials are responding to fears of what could occur in 2024 and to the reality of what happened at the central counting location in Detroit in 2020.

The day after the 2020 election, a crowd of Michigan Republicans ? primed by months of Trump’s baseless claims of massive voter fraud and that he’d won the election ? hurried to the convention hall in downtown Detroit where mail-in and military votes were being counted, argued with police and election officials and banged on windows while they chanted “stop the count.”

On X, formerly Twitter, Flynn's associate Ivan Raiklin, a former Green Beret, and retired Army Reserve lieutenant colonel, said last Monday that Americans should be "planning to descend on states and counties where they do not finish the election count by midnight Nov. 5 in order to document, audit and livestream every movement and breath of every single poll worker, election official, to ensure they are motivated to guarantee a free fair and transparent election."

More: Trump vows to go after his enemies if elected. Meet two enforcers ready to carry that out

Lawrence Norden, vice president of the Elections & Government Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, said his biggest fear about post-election violence is if one candidate declares victory before the ballots have all been counted and while it is still unclear who won.

"That is the period of time where there's an information void, and emotions are running extremely high," Norden said. "That's when you get the crowd showing up, threats against election workers, election officials, who are doing their jobs."

In 2020, Trump declared victory hours after the polls closed, even though it was too close to call and neither candidate had secured the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win and ballots were still being counted across the country. Days later, Biden secured the Electoral College votes needed to win.

'You have to have contingency plans in place'

In Chester County, Pennsylvania, about 40 minutes from Philadelphia, Voter Services Director Karen Barsoum has been meeting with representatives of county agencies for months.

“This is not a clerk ? me ? sitting in an office like maybe 20 years ago. This is a big operation that needs everyone from this county almost to be helping with and on standby, from the (district attorney) to the sheriff to the Department of Emergency Services," she told USA TODAY.

All 300 county staffers have been trained on what happens at the central ballot scanning facility, including emergency training by the Department of Emergency Services, she said.

“God forbid you're at a station, and there is an envelope that has white powder... this is how we are going to conduct ourselves. This is how we're segregating it. This is how we segregate a person. This is how we evacuate,” Barsoum said, paraphrasing the training.

Local elections officials nationwide have changed procedures or built new facilities in anticipation of people potentially trying to interfere with counting ballots. Jurisdictions of all sizes expect intense public scrutiny of election administration.

Paulina Gutierrez, the Milwaukee Election Commission executive director, said every person going into central counting now has to go through security and is only allowed to carry one bag. Posted signs will explain the rules in preparation for large crowds and city attorneys will be on site. They've also reduced the observation space so it will be harder for a large crowd to gather, she said.

“Any member of the public can show up to any of our polling sites and central count, and we are expecting large crowds,” Gutierrez said.

In Washoe County, Nevada, home to Reno, election workers are now monitored by overhead cameras as they count ballots, with panic buttons installed in case of emergency, and security badges to limit access. And because election observers have sometimes tried to harass workers counting ballots, the county installed a soundproof glass-fronted "penalty box" to keep them separate.

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The new election facility in Fulton County, Georgia, home to most of Atlanta, was specifically built to have wide windows where the public can view every part of the process, to be as transparent as possible, said Nadine Williams, director of registration and elections. The fire marshal will keep a close eye on how many people enter the building, she said.

"We are concerned about the large crowd that we can possibly get on election night," she said. "We've been doing scenario trainings and things of that nature to prepare."

In Maryland, Baltimore County's new central building for election administration was designed with transparency and security in mind, said Election Director Ruie Lavoie.

“If anyone wants to come and watch us till four o'clock in the morning while we upload the results, they're more than welcome to do so," she said.

Santa Fe County, New Mexico, Clerk Katherine Clark said tabletop exercises with local law enforcement, the FBI and the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency have been useful.

“There's always going to be things that happen, and because that election has to happen no matter what ? absolutely no matter what ? you have to have contingency plans in place," she said.

The National Policing Institute is one of several election advocacy and law enforcement groups that have held meetings with law enforcement across the country on how they can help elections officials protect not just staff, but ballots and the ability to count them. Safety of the central ballot counting locations has been a focus, Burch, the group's president, said.

Law enforcement is being asked to think about elections in a way they never had to before, he said. They are preparing for protests and civil disobedience, along with providing security for months of campaign stops, weeks of early voting locations, polling places on Election Day and at the ballot count locations for days afterward.

Detroit has changed

Changes to procedures in Detroit and state law in Michigan should make it harder for a large, upset crowd to gather and disrupt the count, Daniel Baxter, chief of operations for Detroit, told USA TODAY.

In 2020, challengers ? a person who is appointed by a candidate or political party to observe the process on their behalf ? just had to sign a piece of paper to enter the tabulation area. Now, they have to provide credentials showing they preregistered with one of a dozen groups that signed up weeks in advance to have challengers in Wayne County, which includes part of Detroit and the surrounding counties. Everyone entering will have to present identification, be credentialed in advance and pass through metal detectors manned by Detroit Police officers.

An initiative petition passed by Michigan voters in November 2022 also allows local election administrators to start pre-tabulating absentee ballots before the election and limits how many challengers can be present during pre-tabulation and on election night.

Ballot counting was moved from the basement to a new hall within the convention center where there is more space to work “and there are no windows to bang on," Baxter said.

Baxter, who has worked in the office since the mid-1980s, said election officials have always talked with law enforcement about protection and security, but this year is different. It includes lessons learned from the last presidential election, what state and federal law enforcement are hearing and the threats other election officials have faced.

"Everything that we're doing for the 2024 presidential election is rooted from what our experience was in 2020,” he said.

Law enforcement will also help ensure that ballots and the memory cards holding ballot data make it to the central count location from the precincts.

"Everything that we do will be under police escort to ensure a tranquil and smooth operation and transition of all of those items," Baxter said.

Officers will be visible on every street around the convention center and will be in parking areas to keep ballot-counting staff from being hassled or an aggressive crowd from interfering with counting the ballots.

"We just want to make sure that every area is covered. While we hope for the best, we plan for the worst," Baxter said.

Planning in Green Bay

Jeffreys, Green Bay's clerk, said she began thinking about contingency plans a year ago. She took the job in 2021.

"My clerkship is in a post-Jan. 6 environment. I have always been concerned, and I've always worked closely with the police department on our security,” she said.

So Jeffreys quickly agreed when the police chief suggested removing bushes at city hall and closing off the street out front while ballots are counted.

"That came about as a result of some information the police chief had received and also his professional judgment that we needed to, quote, unquote, harden where central count takes place,” she said. “I leave the intelligence gathering to the police department. And I trust them."

USA TODAY reporter Trevor Hughes contributed to this article.

(This story has been updated to add new information.)

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: As Election Day nears, emergency officials prep for possible violence