Georgia officials will give election workers panic buttons to keep them safe amid rising threats

A key swing county in Georgia has approved nearly $50,000 in funding toward panic buttons for election workers this November.

The Cobb County Board of Commissioners approved the funding on Tuesday as part of a $2.43 million package for the upcoming election presented by the director of the county’s Board of Elections and Registration.

Now, the Board of Elections has the funding to purchase some 200 devices for workers.

The devices are small rectangles that fit in pockets and can be worn on a lanyard, NBC News reports. They can be programmed to send alerts to local law enforcement and can pair with cellphones to transmit the user’s location.

Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid told The Independent they approved the funding to help the Board of Elections keep workers safe.

“There has been a trust with respect to this elemental aspect of government to ensure that people have the opportunity to vote,” Cupid told The Independent.

“Those that are responsible for that process feel a level of concern and possibly even threats that they have not felt in the past,” she continued. “It is pretty unfortunate.”

Cobb County isn’t the first to use these devices. More than half of Georgia’s counties use them, NBC News reports.

Threats against election officials are on the rise across the country in the wake of the 2020 presidential election, during which Donald Trump and other major GOP players falsely claimed the vote was fraudulent and President Joe Biden did not win the election.

At least four secretaries of state have revealed they have received death threats since the 2020 election.

Meanwhile, one in six election workers reported being threatened because of their job, according to a 2022 survey from the Brennan Center for Justice.