- Title: In U.S. swing states, officials brace for conspiracy theories and violence
- Date: 30th October 2024
- Summary: DETROIT, MICHIGAN, UNITED STATES (OCTOBER 28, 2024) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) DETROIT CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, DANIEL BAXTER, SAYING: "You've heard things from 2020. And that whole experience resonates with every Detroiter, not just poll workers, not just the police department, not just all of those law enforcement agencies, but Detroiters. All 635,000 of us are conc
- Embargoed: 13th November 2024 09:59
- Keywords: Daniel Braxton Detroit Donald Trump Janice Winfrey Kamala Harris Michigan Pennsylvania Philadelphia U.S. presidential election ballots conspiracy theories elections mail ballots polling swing states voter fraud voters voting
- Location: DETROIT, MICHIGAN, WASHINGTON, D.C., PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA AND LAWRENCEVILLE, GEORGIA, UNITED STATES
- City: DETROIT, MICHIGAN, WASHINGTON, D.C., PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA AND LAWRENCEVILLE, GEORGIA, UNITED STATES
- Country: US
- Topics: North America,Government/Politics,Elections/Voting
- Reuters ID: LVA005535029102024RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: With the U.S. election days just away, officials in the most competitive battleground states are bracing for misinformation, conspiracy theories, threats and possible violence.
In Philadelphia, Detroit and Atlanta, three of former President Donald Trump’s favorite targets for false claims of voter fraud, officials have fortified their operations against a repeat of the chaos of 2020. Philadelphia’s ballot-counting warehouse is now surrounded by fencing topped with barbed wire. In Detroit and Atlanta, some election offices are protected by bullet-proof glass.
In Wisconsin, election workers have been trained on de-escalation techniques and polling stations rearranged so workers have escape routes if they are menaced by protestors.
In Arizona, an epicenter in 2020 for false claims by Republicans about rigged voting, the secretary of state is working with local officials on how to respond to misinformation, including deep-fake images of purported fraud.
As opinion polls show Republican Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris neck and neck heading into Tuesday’s (November 5) vote, officials say there’s one thing they can’t predict or control: What Trump and his allies might say on election night as the votes are still being counted.
Election officials from both parties told Reuters they are preparing for a replay of 2020, when Trump and his lawyers pushed false charges about late-night ballot dumps and rigged machines in an effort to overturn his loss. In the wake of those claims, clerks around the country have been subjected to threats and harassment from Trump supporters convinced the election was stolen.
The Trump campaign did not respond directly to questions about plans to challenge the results. In a statement, Danielle Alvarez, a senior advisor for the campaign and the Republican National Committee, said the party had recruited 230,000 poll watchers, poll workers and legal experts to “bring transparency and accountability” to the election.
Throughout his campaign, Trump has repeated the falsehood that he won in 2020 while signaling he would contest a possible loss to Harris.
On Friday (October 25), in a post on Trump’s Truth Social platform, he wrote that there was "rampant Cheating and Skulduggery" in 2020 and threatened election officials and others “involved in unscrupulous behavior” this cycle with prosecution.
Election officials say one of their biggest fears is a razor-close result where the outcome will hinge on court fights over small numbers of disputed ballots. The Republican National Committee has targeted election officials with dozens of lawsuits challenging various aspects of the voting process, a move seen by Democrats as a prelude to contesting a potential loss. Republican poll watchers, who monitor the casting and counting of ballots, have been trained to be aggressive in scrutinizing the process, and their ranks are filled with activists who still deny the 2020 results, according to training calls reviewed by Reuters.
The tensions are especially acute in Philadelphia, Atlanta and Detroit, major Democratic vote centers in crucial swing states. Trump accused them of allowing electoral fraud in 2020 and has done so again since the start of this campaign.
At an Iowa rally in December, he urged followers to go to the three cities and "guard the vote," a phrase that alarmed Democrats who warned it could prompt his supporters to intimidate voters or disrupt the counting.
Daniel Baxter, Detroit's chief operating officer for absentee voting and special projects, said the city is preparing for potential unrest in planning with local police and federal officials. Its election headquarters has been strengthened with armed guards and bullet-proof glass. The counting of mail-in ballots has been moved to a more secure location in the convention hall downtown. In 2020, Trump supporters sought to disrupt the process by pounding on windows and yelling "stop the count."
“We just want to make sure that we have planned for the worst as we hope for the best," Baxter said in an interview.” He said he is unaffiliated with any party.
Trump also singled out Detroit, America’s largest Black-majority city, saying on Oct. 10 that the rest of the country would become “like Detroit” if Harris wins. Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey, a Democrat, said she believes racism was at the root of Trump’s attacks on cities like hers. "He's the type of person that thinks that he can easily intimidate Detroiters because we're a predominantly Black city,” she said in an interview. “But we're not intimidated by him at all."
The Trump campaign did not respond to a question about Winfrey’s remarks.
Philadelphia has overhauled vote-counting since delays in 2020 created an opening for Trump and his allies to spread conspiracy theories and for his supporters to target election officials with threats. In 2020, election clerks in Philadelphia and elsewhere struggled with an avalanche of mail-in ballots, thanks to more liberal vote-by-mail rules adopted by many states in response to the pandemic.
On election night in 2020, Trump declared himself the winner after early returns showed him in the lead, even though thousands of ballots remained to be processed in Philadelphia. With the election in the balance, it took the city five days to count enough ballots to make clear that Biden had indeed won Pennsylvania, clinching his bid for the White House.
Since then, the city has moved its election operations to a warehouse, secured by fencing topped with barbed wire, 15 miles from the downtown convention center where ballots were counted four years ago as protesters gathered outside. In Pennsylvania, unlike other states, state law bars election officials from beginning work on the mail ballots until 7 a.m. on Election Day.
Michigan, by contrast, in 2022 passed a law allowing for pre-processing of mail-in ballots. Election workers in Detroit now have eight days to verify and scan absentee ballots through the tabulator prior to Election Day. City clerk Winfrey said she hopes to report results in time for the 11 p.m. TV news on Nov. 5.
Philadelphia officials say they also expect to deliver numbers much more quickly this year, with nearly all ballots counted by Wednesday (November 6) or Thursday (November 7). The city expects to receive more than 225,000 mail ballots, far fewer than the 375,000 that flooded in four years ago. The city has purchased new, faster machines to slice open envelopes and scan ballots, along with new technology that officials say speeds up the process of checking mail ballots.
In Atlanta’s majority-Black Fulton County, Georgia’s most populous area, officials are preparing for pro-Trump misinformation. In 2020, Trump attorney Rudolph Guiliani falsely accused two Georgia election workers of counting illegal votes, triggering death threats against them and fueling Trump’s false claims that he won the state. The Georgia state election board, now dominated by three pro-Trump Republicans, has called for new investigations of Fulton County.
Fulton’s election board chair, Sherri Allen, a registered Democrat serving on the non-partisan body, said the county has taken steps to reassure skeptics. It opened last year a new vote-counting operation in a massive suburban warehouse, 21 miles from downtown Atlanta.
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