Election Officials Are Prepared for a Lot More Than You Might Think
U.S. Election Assistance Commission
Across the country, thousands of election officials, who have spent years getting ready for the 2024 election, are making their final preparations. Some are facing threats of violence, but they’re also preparing for the chance that any number of things could go wrong: blackouts, printer errors, broken scanners, medical emergencies, protests and locked doors.
To help them, a small federal agency developed an unusual practice tool: a deck of 52 cards that describes problems local officials could face. The cards pose situations like:
U.S. Election Assistance Commission
The agency, the Election Assistance Commission, has distributed 250 decks of cards to local election offices. The icons on the cards indicate where the problem lies: blue for online, orange for a voting location, green for a local election office, and red for a state office.
But the cards have no answers printed on them. That’s because there are no cookie-cutter solutions to these problems. Local officials develop their own contingency plans for Election Day, operating under laws and procedures that vary state by state, county by county and even town by town.
We asked a few of these officials to draw some cards — mostly over email, to fit their busy schedules. They told us about the minor catastrophes they’ve overcome, and what they might do if another problem came up this year.
Amid a flood of disinformation about election integrity, the scenario cards showed how these officials are ready for just about anything, and aren’t excessively worried about the big day.
“Elections are a human enterprise,” said Michael Siegrist, the township clerk in Canton, Mich., just outside Detroit, where tens of thousands of people will vote in this election. “We’ve been conducting them for hundreds of years. Nothing is really keeping me up at night.”
Below, how 10 election officials answered the scenarios posed by the cards.
Scenario: A car crashes into one of your drop boxes, and the ballots inside are damaged.
What they would do:
“I’d email every single one of those voters.”
Michael Siegrist, township clerk
Canton, Mich.
If a ballot drop box were harmed in his precinct, intentionally or not, Mr. Siegrist could “pull a list of everyone who has an absentee ballot that we haven’t received yet.” He would email them all, and probably send letters, to tell them what happened and when. If it were close to Election Day, he might get volunteers to canvass the voters.
He might ask the local public safety department to check license plates from camera footage at that ballot box to help track down voters. “If their ballot was impacted, we could easily spoil it and issue them a new ballot and they’d have time to vote.”
This one is particularly relevant. There were fires at two ballot drop boxes in Washington and Oregon on Monday.
Scenario: A voting location is foreclosed on the night before the election. Poll workers arrive to find the building padlocked with voting equipment still inside.
What they did:
“They dropped the tailgate of a white pickup and set up the booths.”
Patty Weeks, county clerk
Nez Perce County, Idaho
There was no foreclosure, but in 2012, voters showed up to a rural polling location — one with around 160 registered voters — and the doors were locked, Ms. Weeks said. So, voting was moved outside. (Eventually, the holder of the key was found.)
Scenario: A worker opening mail in the election office discovers an envelope containing white powder, and you are forced to evacuate.
What they did:
“We had a great bullhorn. We were giving people regular updates.”
Jerelyn Hampton, ballot processing manager
King County, Wash.
After an envelope containing white powder was discovered, Ms. Hampton’s office evacuated. “We were lucky in that it was a sunny day, so we were out there and we weren’t getting rained on,” she said. “We had the first responders, and they were providing us with estimates of how long before they clear the building.” Later, testing revealed the powder contained fentanyl.
Scenario: Just before lunchtime, a poll worker plugs in one too many crockpots, overloading a circuit that also powers voting equipment, causing power loss.
What they did:
“We were able to get a generator and backup lights to the precinct in less than an hour.”
Thad Hall, elections director
Mercer County, Pa.
A polling place lost power after a farmer hit a power pole with her tractor, but operations at the polling location never ceased, according to Mr. Hall. “Our ballot scanner operates on a battery backup, so the scanner was never down,” he said. “Voters used the flashlight feature on their phones to see their ballots before the generator and backup lighting arrived.”
Scenario: A local activist with a large social media following falsely posts that voters are being turned away at a voting location. The activist is encouraging the public to protest at your office.
What they would do:
“I would send out news releases to all radio and newspapers stating that is false information.”
Diane Thompson, county clerk and election authority
Johnson County, Mo.
Ms. Thompson said she would go on Facebook Live and send news releases to all major media outlets in her region to let voters know this was not true.
Scenario: The only scanner at a voting location fails halfway through Election Day and will not reboot. Data is inaccessible, and voters are lining up.
What they did:
“The DS200 has a built-in ballot box for the manual receipt of ballots.”
Millicent McGinnes Highet, town clerk
New Shoreham, R.I.
When a ballot scanner went down in Ms. Highet’s town, voters were still able to deposit ballots into a box built into the scanner. Once the scanner was up and running, the deposited ballots could be collected and scanned. “This was completed in the polling location by the Board of Canvassers fully in public,” she said. “These days we have a backup DS200 to additionally address such issues.”
Scenario: A carbon monoxide detector goes off minutes before polls close, forcing the evacuation of the office or voting location.
What they did:
“Sheriff deputies and city police helped grab all election equipment to relocate and squeeze into another polling place and redirect traffic.”
Patty Weeks, county clerk
Nez Perce County, Idaho
It wasn’t carbon monoxide, but Ms. Weeks said a polling place once had to be evacuated “because dynamite was discovered next door at a hoarder compound.” With the help of the sheriff’s office and police, they relocated successfully.
Scenario: There is a systemwide outage of the state’s voter registration database. Voter information cannot be accessed or updated.
What they did:
“We make a backup of our absentee database before Election Day.”
Diane Thompson, county clerk and election authority
Johnson County, Mo.
“We’ve actually had this happen before,” Ms. Thompson said, but her team is prepared. “We also have hard copies of voter cards we can utilize.”
Scenario: A squirrel got into a transformer near your office the night before Election Day, and both the elections office and several voting locations in the surrounding area are without power.
What they would do:
“Our main office is on a backup generator and powers on immediately.”
Leah Valenti, supervisor of elections
Charlotte County, Fla.
Ms. Valenti said she would work with the power company to restore full power to the office. “I most recently had to do this post-Hurricane Milton to regain fully operational offices,” she said. “The generators at our offices power lights and electronics but not our A/C. In Florida, you need A/C!”
Scenario: A volunteer election worker spills a large soda on voted ballots during vote counting, causing the ink to smear.
What they would do:
“We don’t allow food or drinks in the counting area.”
Diane Thompson, county clerk and election authority
Johnson County, Mo.
Scenario: A poll worker is reportedly talking to voters in the voting location about a conspiracy theory involving a local candidate on the ballot.
What they would do:
“Any poll worker who is violating their oath or training can be removed and replaced quickly.”
Amber Lopez, deputy director, Board of Elections
Clark County, Ohio
While she has not experienced this scenario, if it were to occur, Ms. Lopez said, “We would conduct a quick investigation, speaking with the complainant, the poll worker and other poll workers in the location, and then make a decision on what action to take.”
Scenario: There is a medical emergency in the ballot counting facility, and E.M.T.s need to access the restricted area.
What they would do:
“We would let the E.M.T.s in, let them do their work, but they would be supervised at all times.”
Eric Corbin, deputy director, Board of Elections
Butler County, Ohio
In the tabulation room in Butler County, Ohio, Mr. Corbin said, at least one Democrat and one Republican must be present at all times. Officials can’t access the room without scanning a badge from each party. “If I go back to that room and I scan my badge on the door, it’s not going to let me in, until someone of the opposite party also scans their badge,” he said. So they would give the E.M.T.s access to the room, supervise them, and, once things were clear, resume counting.
“There are so many safeguards and safety measures baked in that most Americans aren’t aware of, and they have been there for a long time,” said Benjamin Hovland, the commissioner of the Election Assistance Commission, which produced the scenario cards.
“Yes, we prepare for big things like natural disasters, but you also have to prepare for the small things, and sort of everything in between.”
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