From government agencies to private citizens – many are planning for Election Day unrest by boarding up their buildings.
The Secret Service confirmed that it was erecting barriers around major sites in the nation’s capital, including the White House and the vice president’s residence at the U.S. Naval Observatory. Meanwhile, private businesses in major cities, like New York, Portland and Washington, D.C., have also followed suit by boarding up their storefronts.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, the Secret Service said it was “working closely” with federal, state and local partners in both the nation’s capital and Palm Beach County, Florida, in order to implement “heightened levels of safety and security” ahead of Tuesday’s election. In addition to the White House and the Naval Observatory, fencing will also block off the Treasury Department in Washington, D.C., and authorities have used bike-rack barriers to fortify the Capitol, according to The Washington Post.
Meanwhile, Howard University, where Harris will be on election night, will also see heightened security measures, local D.C. police indicated.
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Individual states are also ramping up security efforts, including erecting barricades, ahead of Tuesday’s election. In Luzerene County in battleground Pennsylvania, “protective boulders” have been placed around the county’s Bureau of Elections office – just one of several security measures the office has taken, according to The New York Times.
Meanwhile, in Massachusetts, additional police are expected to be deployed to polling sites on Election Day and the state is activating a Homeland Security Operations Center at the Massachusetts State Police Headquarters in Farmington, according to a local news report.
On Friday, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee activated the National Guard to help respond to potential violence “leading up to, on, and potentially extending beyond Nov. 5.”
In addition to the government, images and videos of businesses in D.C., New York City and Portland, Oregon, have begun surfacing on social media ahead of Tuesday’s election.
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“It is completely ridiculous that we have to do this,” Ebony Boger, who works in D.C., told ABC 7 News. “It’s very precautionary, and I see why because I was here four years ago, and it was crazy down here. It’s not shocking. I’m kind of used to it. I think they should do it.”
“It is sad that it has to come to that,” D.C. resident Lucas Argeles told local news outlet FOX 5. “I understand why store owners, especially local businesses, would want to do that. Even outside of the elections, there have been other instances where they should have boarded and they didn’t. It’s sad. It’s the reality. But I hope that this time it’s just a precautionary measure, nothing happens, and then, yeah.”
The precautions come after the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security sent a series of bulletins to state and local election officials between September and October, which warned “election-related grievances” could motivate domestic extremists “to engage in violence.”
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“[Domestic Violent Extremists] continue to create, exploit, and promote narratives about the election process or legal decisions involving political figures, and we are concerned that these grievances could motivate some [Domestic Violent Extremists] to engage in violence, as we saw during the 2020 election cycle,” one of the bulletins read. It added that there was also “heightened risk” that some extremists may seek to launch a “civil war.”
“Through at least early 2025, there is a heightened risk that [Domestic Violent Extremists] may mobilize against ideological opponents, government officials, and law enforcement in an attempt to initiate a civil war.”
