Governors in at least three states have requested the deployment of National Guard troops to help maintain law and order. An Arizona sheriff has placed his department on heightened alert to mitigate the risk of potential violence, with drones and snipers prepared for any incidents.

As the country prepares to vote for Republican Donald Trump or Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential election, heightened concerns about possible political violence have prompted officials to implement a series of measures security during and after election day.

Most of these precautionary measures are particularly evident in battleground states, like Nevada, where protests by supporters of former President Trump took place after the 2020 election.

This year, a security barrier surrounds the location of some of these events: the Las Vegas tabbing center. Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo said last week he had activated a “limited contingent” of 60 National Guard members to ensure a rapid response to any challenge.

In Arizona, a similar metal fence was erected at the Maricopa County vote tabulation center in downtown Phoenix, a 2020 hot spot for rigged election conspiracy theories and threats against election officials.

Sheriff Russ Skinner said his department would be on “high alert” for threats and violence and he asked staff to be available for work.

“We will have a lot of resources, a lot of personnel, a lot of equipment,” he added, noting that deputies will use drones to monitor activity around polling places and that snipers and d Other reinforcements will be ready to be deployed if violence occurs. likely.

He said “polarization” has intensified in the days following the election, so law enforcement will remain on heightened alert and “there will be zero tolerance for anything which concerns criminal activities.

Concerned about the risk of protests and even violence, several Arizona schools and churches that served as voting centers in the past will not be used at polling stations this year, a local Arizona election official told Reuters. Arizona.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has more than 400,000 members in Arizona, has proposed several polling places to fill the gap.

About a dozen community leaders from across the state and from diverse political and cultural backgrounds have formed a committee to focus on stemming political violence, according to Jane Andersen, an LDS church member and community protection expert. democracy for Arizona at Mormon Women for Ethical Government. .

The group is poised to tap into a vast network, including religious leaders, who can help spread factual information to counter unrest fueled by misinformation.

In the state of Michigan in 2020, Trump supporters descended on the downtown Detroit convention hall and began banging on the windows as the counting of mail-in ballots entered a second day. This year, yellow bike racks lined both sides of the boulevard it sits on.

Visitors must pass metal detectors and around 15 police officers patrol the cavernous room. Daniel Baxter, Detroit’s director of operations for absentee voting and special projects, said police were also on the roof and around the building. Eight days of early preprocessing of mail-in ballots went peacefully, Baxter said.

Peter Simi, a sociology professor at Chapman University in California who has studied threats against public officials, said the worst-case scenario would be for Trump to lose and not admit defeat.

Rather than a repeat of the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters, he said the conflict could be “scattered, diffuse events in multiple locations” that would be more difficult for security forces to handle. order.

Precautions extend beyond battleground states. Authorities in Oregon and Washington state said they had activated the National Guard. Some store windows in Washington, D.C. and elsewhere have been covered with plywood.

Back in Las Vegas, Faviola Garibay inspected the security fence around the linen-colored building where Clark County officials count votes and voters like her can drop off their ballots.

“The fence, the police presence here, it feels secure,” she said. “I feel safe to vote.”