Officials in the key battleground state of Georgia are taking a new step to keep election workers safe amid heightened threats, equipping them with panic buttons that allow them to quickly contact authorities in an emergency.
The Cobb County Board of Commissioners in northwest Atlanta has approved $47,250 in funding to purchase about 200 devices for election workers ahead of another hotly contested presidential election this fall.
The panic buttons are sold by Arizona-based Runbeck Election Services, which prints ballots and sells election equipment, including printers, through a partnership with Ohio-based security company Response Technologies. The devices are about the size of a credit card and can be worn on lanyards or tucked into pockets. When activated, they pair with users’ cellphones to send GPS locations to authorities.
The tags, which cost $150 to $250 a year, can be programmed to send alerts to election authorities, law enforcement, or both, said Matt Volkerding, vice president of sales at Response Technologies.
The two companies partnered about a month ago to sell panic buttons to election workers this year and are already in talks to sell 1,500 badges in at least five states. Runbeck reached out to existing customers and pitched the product at election conferences around the state.
“We thought maybe 10 or 20 counties would be interested, and we talked to every year or state. showed interest in it,” Runbeck CEO Jeff Ellington said in an interview.
The devices are the latest way state and local officials are trying to combat the increasingly hostile working conditions faced by some election workers, about 40% of whom reported this year experiencing threats, harassment or abuse.
Since 2020, 17 states and Washington have increased protections for poll workers and election officials. National Conference of State Legislaturesand some countries also incorporate stress reduction training for employees.
This is what former President Donald Trump, who has been spreading false claims about the results of the 2020 elections for a long time, said now began to suggest The 2024 election could be stolen from him, prompting renewed concerns about threats and harassment that could disrupt the vote.
States and municipalities across the country have spent much of the past year conducting safety assessments and multi-agency training to plan for potential problems. Some officials are calling for additional police presence at polling stations, while others are trying to give poll workers the ability to quickly contact law enforcement in the event of conflicts.
Along with Cobb County, Colorado officials also have several panic buttons on hand, Ellington said. Colorado Department of State spokeswoman Kailee Stiles said the office would not comment on security measures. A Cobb County official declined to talk about plans.
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson told reporters recently that officials are working on a cellphone-based program inspired by one in Georgia in 2022 that would allow participating counties to send information directly to law enforcement.
About half of the state’s 159 counties use it, said Mike Hassinger, a spokesman for the Georgia secretary of state’s office. Texting allows officers to provide specific information and more context about potential threats or emergencies, he said, and is a less expensive option than physical panic buttons.
Zachary Manifold, superintendent of elections in Atlanta-area Gwinnett County, said county officials have considered using panic buttons as part of their security plans, but have heard it has led to false alarms elsewhere.
“I think probably my biggest concern is from what we’ve heard from the schools that implemented it here a few years ago — they said there’s a big learning curve,” he said. “One thing we heard from the police chief of our schools was that it’s not as easy to do as you might think. We’re trying to figure out if maybe there’s something else going on, so we’re kicking that idea around.”
That was the experience of Kim Wyman, a former secretary of state and senior fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, D.C., when he first tried to use the panic button decades ago as director of elections in Thurston County. Washington.
When his team tried to activate the panic button, the police never came, he said, and an employee called 911 instead. Wyman said he later learned they weren’t using the panic button correctly — users are supposed to hold it down for three seconds, not just touch it once — and that police weren’t monitoring them.
“It’s a good tool to make employees feel more comfortable,” Wyman said in an interview. “You definitely have to drill and practice with it.”