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Concrete barriers sit along the sidewalks outside Maricopa County’s election center in downtown Phoenix. A chain-link fence with privacy covers encloses the parking lot. Surrounding the building itself is another black steel security fence, this one permanent. And inside the building, there are locked doors behind locked doors.

Outside on Tuesday, the gate on the security fence buzzed, followed by latches opening, then slamming shut again, as workers walked in and out.

With seven days to go, this is what it looked like at the site where ballots will be counted for the Nov. 5 presidential election, in the most populous swing county in the nation.

Down the street, in a conference room in a different county government building, dozens of reporters — some of whom had flown from across the country — gathered to ask Maricopa County Sheriff Russ Skinner his plan for making sure voters and workers are safe.

Memories of election night 2020 were on their mind. That night, as workers counted ballots inside the center, protesters swarmed the building, chanting “let us in” to a few sheriff’s deputies and security guards at the doors. Some carried Trump flags. Others carried guns. There were no fences to hold them back, at least on that first night.

If a crowd gathers this year, Skinner said, there will be designated spaces for them to protest outside the fences, so that they’re out of the way of the trucks and workers entering and exiting the building. Skinner said it’s important to allow people to assert their First Amendment rights, but the people guarding the building will not tolerate anything that violates the law.

“If they start violating the law, i.e. going into a public thoroughfare, starting anything of violent nature, then law enforcement presence will be taking action,” Skinner said.

Other reporters wanted to know if there would be snipers on the roof, and drones, as they read about in The Wall Street Journal. Skinner said that at this point, he doesn’t see the need to station snipers, but he is evaluating his security plan daily. He said drones are a cheap and effective way of monitoring crowds and events, but he will also have all the staffing he needs on hand. The election, he said, is a “blackout period” for staff vacations.

“All my resources and equipment are dialed up and ready to go,” he said.

In 2020, sheriff’s deputies had to escort temporary workers to their cars, which were parked down the street in a dark dirt parking lot. This year, workers will park in a secure lot, and along with law-enforcement escorts, shuttles will be available to make sure they get to their cars safely.

In response to a few instances of USPS mailboxes or ballot drop boxes being set on fire across the country – including a mailbox in Phoenix last week with some ballots inside – Maricopa Elections Director Scott Jarrett addressed how the county is protecting its ballot drop boxes.

Jarrett said there are fire suppression canisters in each drop box. Most of the boxes are indoors where government officials can see them, but the two that are not are on a 24-hour live video stream and broadcast to the public.

“If need be, I have the sheriff’s office on speed dial if I ever need to call,” Jarrett said.

Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates, a Republican, said the fact that the county had to have a news conference just focused on security is “sad commentary with what has happened in this country for the last four years.”

But Gates said that county, state, and federal officials and law enforcement are going into this election prepared.

“Anyone who thinks that they are going to rattle the foundations of the democracy in this county, they have been unsuccessful to this point,” he said. “They are going to continue to be unsuccessful.”

Jen Fifield is a reporter for Votebeat based in Arizona. Contact Jen at jfifield@votebeat.org.

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization covering local election integrity and voting access. Sign up for their newsletters here.

https://www.votebeat.org/arizona/2024/10/30/maricopa-county-sheriff-presidential-election-2024-security-safety/