WASHINGTON, Oct 2, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - In early September, a routine meeting of a suburban county election board in the US state of Georgia was derailed when an audience member shouted out "Heil Hitler!"

Moments before, according to video of the meeting, another man accused a Jewish board member of being a secret communist "intent on subterfuge" because she did not stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

"We are in a hyper-partisan environment, not one that I believe existed prior to 2020," Tori Silas, chairwoman of the Cobb County election board in Atlanta's northwestern suburbs, told AFP by phone.

Officials across the country have reported similar concerns over the heated political atmosphere, warning of narratives fueled by misinformation ahead of the November election that have led to real-world threats.

"We're daily receiving threats, whether it's through voicemails, emails, social media or in person," Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson told CBS News this month. "And it's escalating."

The US Postal Inspection Service told AFP that it and the FBI were investigating "suspicious mailings sent to election officials in several states," some of which contained an unknown substance.

Lisa Deeley, a Democrat on the Philadelphia elections board, lamented that "fantastical charges of widespread fraud and abuse" continue to circulate, telling AFP it is the "same playbook" used by a "certain candidate" in 2020, an obvious reference to Donald Trump.

Following his election loss to Joe Biden, then-president Trump unleashed an unprecedented torrent of false claims of fraud, and targeted election officials by name on social media -- including Deeley's former colleague.
- Safety precautions -
As he seeks to regain the White House, Trump continues to allege the 2020 election was "stolen."

"Bad, bad things happened (in 2020) -- we're not going to let it happen again," the 78-year-old candidate said this month.

With rising hostilities, election boards are increasingly adding physical safety to their typical duties -- ensuring the voting process is fair and efficient.

While Silas said she did not know of any specific threats to Cobb County, they were nonetheless enacting "best practices with respect to safety."
"Given the hyper-partisan environment, and things that have gone on in other jurisdictions, we would not be doing our jobs if we were not considering and undertaking" precautions, she said.

Measures adopted so far include outfitting staff with two-way radios that have direct connections to emergency services, and increasing police presence around voting sites.

In Maricopa County, which includes Arizona's capital Phoenix, officials have invested "metal detectors, in fencing, in cameras," Republican official Bill Gates told CBS.

"I wish we didn't have to do this, but we do."
- Delays -
Election officials are particularly worried that the narrow margins expected between Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris could make it difficult, once again, to quickly call the race.

"The window of time from when the polls close on election night until when the result of the election is known, that's the biggest window for mis- and disinformation," said Seth Bluestein, a Republican on the Philadelphia board.

In 2020, he led ballot counting efforts at the Philadelphia convention center -- a "very intense time," he remembered.

Recent changes to election law and the Covid pandemic led many voters in Pennsylvania to vote by mail that year, creating a huge strain.

"It took us the better part of four days working around the clock to count enough of the ballots for the race to be called," he told AFP.
With protests outside the center, "we were very fortunate to have a lot of security protecting us while we were focused on doing our job," he said.

Several elections later and with a new operations center to process ballots, Bluestein said he is "cautiously optimistic" the city is better prepared.

However, he expressed frustration that Pennsylvania's split legislature has not yet fixed a major factor in the delays -- a requirement that administrators wait until Election Day to begin processing the hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots.

If the election comes down to Pennsylvania, as analysts say it potentially could, that rule could delay knowing the result for several days, intensifying scrutiny on the state's election workers.

"Rather than fix this and cure this panic among American voters, politics has played its hand," Deeley said of the legislature's inaction.
Elections administrators have no choice but to "continue our crusade to combat mis- and disinformation up and until Election Day and beyond," said Deeley, assuring that Philadelphia "has our ground game covered."
"We know what we need to do. We run safe, fair elections."