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The Brennan Center for Justice and the Giffords Law Center released the report “Guns and Voting,” an analysis of the threat to voting that weapons represent for votersas well as recommendations to ensure the safety of voters and poll workers in the 2024 elections against armed violence.
Most states’ laws do not adequately protect their constituents against guns.the report’s authors noted, and Latino and African-American minority voters are the ones who feel most unsafe at the polls, according to surveys.
“Only 12 states and Washington, DC, prohibit concealed and open carry in general at polling places,” say report authors Sean Morales-Doyle, Robyn Sanders, Allison Anderman and Jessica Ojeda. “And even fewer states regulate the carrying of weapons at other sensitive election-related sites, such as ballot drop boxes and ballot processing centers.”
In 2022, the Global Project Countering Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) conducted a survey on the effects of extremist political rhetoric and weapons proliferation in public spaces, cited in the report.
The survey revealed that less than half of all people surveyed, just 41%, feel safe at voting sites.
This percentage was even lower among Hispanic respondents (37%), African Americans (28%), and those between 18 and 25 years of age (26%).
And a Brennan Center survey this year found that election officials serving jurisdictions in which a racial minority is the majority were more likely to report threats, harassment or abuse because of their jobs than other local electoral authorities.
“Our voting process and elections have been subject to threats and intimidation, just as the nation is seeing increased gun proliferation, more frequent gun violence, and fewer legal protections. “This is a toxic combination,” the authors highlighted.
The 2024 elections will take place in a transformed legal context because In most states, many people and numerous pro-gun groups have achieved legal deregulation.
In 2010, only two states allowed concealed carry of weapons in public without a permit or background check.
Today, there are 27 states that allow the carrying of weapons without a permit.. While other states have tightened their gun regulations over the same periodthe Supreme Court has threatened this ability to do so.
In this context, weapons have proliferated. The United States now has more guns than people.
Recommendations to increase security in the 2024 elections
With more guns, political polarization, and violence, states need strong laws that limit the risks and must enact policies that expressly protect the electorate and eliminate threats of armed intimidation at voting sites and other electoral administration spaces
Among the recommendations to increase security that the authors gave are:
– Prohibit the carrying of firearms in places where voting and electoral administration tasks are carried out
– Pass stronger state laws that prevent intimidation of critics, election officials and workers, and anyone else who facilitates voting.
Keep reading:
– DHS: Violence related to the 2024 elections is among the security threats facing the US.
– Almost a third of local election officials have suffered mistreatment and threats, according to a survey
– Attacks on Hispanics such as the shooting at Walmart in Texas are latent in the face of extremism in the United States