County Buys Panic Buttons for Election Workers

Devices can call law enforcement, alert officials to a threat
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 16, 2024 4:35 PM CDT
County Buys Panic Buttons for Election Workers
Brent Kiger, Olathe Public Schools' director of safety service, displays a panic-alert button while students at Olathe South High School rush between classes in August 2022, in Olathe, Kan.   (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

With threats against polling place workers increasing and Donald Trump telling supporters the November presidential election might be stolen from him, a large Georgia county is investing in voting security. Commissioners in Cobb County, near Atlanta, this week approved buying about 200 devices called panic buttons, NBC News reports, which election workers can use to summon law enforcement help quickly. The devices, about the size of a credit card, pair with the user's cellphone to send a GPS location to the authorities when activated. They can also be programmed to send an alert to election officials.

A survey this spring found that 38% of election officials say they've faced "threats, harassment or abuse," per NBC. The National Conference of State Legislatures said 17 states and Washington, DC, have strengthened protections for election workers since 2020. Runbeck Election Services, which markets the devices with Response Technologies, said interest is high. "We thought maybe 10 or 20 counties would show interest, and it's been every county or state that we've talked to has shown interest in this," CEO Jeff Ellington said. The secretary of state's office said 24 of Georgia's 159 counties are using a cellphone-based program that texts law enforcement, a system that's less expensive than the panic buttons, which cost $150 to $250 per year.

Officials in nearby Gwinnett County said they're considering buying the devices but are concerned about reports of false alarms and "a huge learning curve." Zachary Manifold, the elections supervisor, said, "The one thing we heard back from our schools' police chief was that it's not quite as easy to implement as you think." Kim Wyman, a former secretary of state in Washington, said such a system wasn't much help decades ago for a couple of reasons. It turned out that workers weren't pressing the button long enough, and police weren't monitoring the system for calls anyway. (More polling places stories.)

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