Arizona
AZ Family: How the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office is preparing to keep you and your ballot safe on Election Day
Whitney Clark of AZ Family reports on the Maricopa county Sheriff’s Office’s preparations to maintain safety at polling stations during the 2024 election.
Early voting is well underway in Maricopa County. If you requested an early ballot, you may be getting ready to mail it in.
That ballot will end up at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center (MCTEC) in downtown Phoenix. There are now extra fencing and barriers around the building to keep your vote and election workers safe.
Arizona‘s Family recently caught up with Maricopa County Sheriff Russ Skinner about the office’s role in the general election. He said they’ve been preparing for almost a year now, and MCSO treats this just like any other grand-scale event in the county.
MCSO works on security plans with the county recorder’s office, other local agencies and its federal partners. With Maricopa County at the center of election conspiracy theories and threats of violence to election workers increasing over recent years, the fencing is necessary around MCTEC to make sure those election officials feel safe and they have the distance they need to get your ballot safely tabulated.
“Barriers are necessary to make sure that we just have a safe standoff distance to make sure that nobody enters that area,” Sheriff Skinner said. “To basically set the line that we have zero tolerance. The process has to take place. This is democracy for our county, for our state and our nation.”