GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN — Chris Davis, the chief of police in Green Bay, Wisconsin, is leading year-round election security planning. Local law enforcement agencies have assumed a larger role in securing elections since 2020.
"Election Day used to pass without appearing on law enforcement roll calls," Davis said. Threats and harassment toward election officials increased after public statements from former President Trump regarding the 2020 election results. A survey from the Brennan Center for Justice found that 32 percent of local election officials reported experiencing threats, harassment, or abuse due to their job.
"I think a lot of that is just because we're right in the middle of the Wisconsin battleground. I remember really being struck when I came here at just how, almost, nervous a lot of city staff were about elections," Davis said.
Katie Reisner, a policy representative with the nonpartisan States United Democracy Center, said, "The number of threats that election officials face, that jurisdictions face, that election workers face all mean that law enforcement does have a heightened role to play and a longer-term role to play. It's not a matter of just tapping in for Election Day and tapping back out." She said, "What we encourage folks to avoid is trying to find the name of their election official, you know, on Election Day. No one wants that. But what is really productive is to have really intergovernmental, cross-functional collaboration well in advance of Election Day." She added, "That's what we don't want. We don't want anyone to feel that by coming in and exercising their civic right and responsibility to cast a ballot that they are in any way, you know, putting themselves at risk or entering a highly securitized space."
Tina Barton, co-chair of the Committee for Safe and Secure Elections, served as an election administrator for two decades, including ten years in Michigan. "There are elections that are taking place all year long all across the country. So, this is something that we are always in planning mode for the next election cycle. It's important to start those conversations at the minute that you even think you should start doing it," Barton said.
Eighty-nine percent of election administrators plan to coordinate with at least one other agency or department before the 2026 midterms to ensure election security. "For the average American, they probably think '24 was a pretty quiet election cycle, but that was because of all of these tabletops, and all of the training, and all of the hard work that election officials and law enforcement and other stakeholders put in doing this training and planning and practicing over the last few years," Barton said.
"I could see if that actually happened, that could turn into a disturbance where the police get called pretty quickly. We're already in a really tense environment around elections, and it's not going to take much for one of these situations to turn into something that a police officer is going to show up at," Davis said. He added, "We have to realize that we can have an impact on somebody's voting experience, and we certainly don't want to do that. I think we've been able to find the right balance for our community. Police professionals who are planning for elections need to figure out what that looks like and get it right for your individual community, because that varies a lot."