By james art In case of violence or other serious situations, Washoe County for the first time placed panic buttons in all of its polling places for the 2024 general election.
This is just one of the actions the county has taken in case things go catastrophically wrong.
Washoe is considered one of the most significant counties in the nation for a potential presidential swing.
“We have increased our security measures,” spokeswoman Bethany Drysdale said. “If a polling center manager feels there is an imminent threat, they can hit the panic button.”
The Nevada Legislature unanimously approved increased penalties for interfering with election personnel last year.
“It’s now a felony to harass poll workers, and I hope it’s also a deterrent, that it might make someone think twice before they try to harass a poll worker,” Drysdale said.
Washoe County is planning a catastrophic failure in numerous polling places
Washoe County has back-up plans in case of inclement weather such as election day 2022, physical threats, cyber attacks, and illness where the entire election office could get sick.
It already faced Chief Elections Officer Carrie-Ann Burgess’ unexpected departure and County Manager Eric Brown with pneumonia just as the nation’s eyes turned to Washoe County.
The answers are laid out in a “continuity of operations” plan.
“It’s about what we do if the power goes out,” Drysdale said. “We have a massive generator on site in case something like this happens. We have alternate locations where we can move polling stations if necessary if something catastrophic happens.
If the power goes out at one or two polling stations, people will be directed to other polling locations.
“But if it’s a catastrophic failure in many places,” she said, “we have alternative places we can move polling stations to.”
Reno police called the voting center
If the situation escalates to the point where election officials believe something bad might happen, local law enforcement will be called.
Ben West, Washoe County security administrator, said poll workers are trained to call 911 if they can, but if they can’t for any reason, they can press a panic button that goes to a call monitoring center , which you will then call a sheriff’s deputy or the Reno or Sparks police depending on the location if it is not a false alarm.
“Generally, they’re well-tuned to where all of our locations are and the physical layout of those locations,” Drysdale said of local law enforcement. “So if they have to answer something, they already know what they’re getting into.”
West said so far during early voting, there has only been one incident that escalated to the point where the police were called. This included someone who became upset because he was not allowed to wear campaign clothing supporting his election views to a polling station.
Nevada law does not allow “campaigning” — such as wearing a shirt or hat advocating for or against a candidate — within 100 feet of where people vote.
“Reno police were called and responded to that location, but no arrest was made,” West said. “Voters were allowed to continue with the voting process after discussing what rules they should follow.”
He said that’s a major problem poll managers face: People bring something that encourages a certain way of voting.
“They deal with it pretty regularly,” West said. “It didn’t generate an incident that I was even notified of, but this time I did because they called the police after things got a little heated.”
Polling center managers receive instructions on what to do in other cases as well.
“There are instructions on what to do if it’s a fire alarm, an actual fire or a bomb threat,” West said. “If it gets serious enough to evacuate a polling place, there are instructions – if you can safely do it – here are the things to secure and carry with you.
“We would do everything possible to restore the equipment for the elections and things like that, but the safety of the people is definitely the priority.
The National Guard has been activated for Nevada election security
Governor Joe Lombardo recently activated the Nevada National Guard in case they are needed to help with election security.
Drysdale said that doesn’t mean they’re standing there armed, ready to spring into action.
“Activation gets the documents out of the way ahead of time,” she said, “so we don’t have to deal with that and they’re ready to go if we need them.”
Mark Robison is the state political reporter for the Reno Gazette Journal, occasionally dabbling in other topics. Email comments to [email protected] or comment on Mark’s Greater Reno Facebook page.