State and local officials in Connecticut are preparing for any disasters that could arise during the upcoming election. On Wednesday, hundreds participated in drills to practice their response.
Officials from the State Police, FBI, Homeland Security, the Secretary of the State's office, the Public Health Department, the State Elections Enforcement Commission and other entities gathered at the Connecticut Emergency Operations Center in Hartford.
Gov. Ned Lamont said they were running through scenarios like a cyber attack, hurricane, fire at the ballot box and more.
“You think about what the potential threats out there are, and a lot of those threats, you know, maybe just rumors, rumors that people are spreading, trying to discourage people from voting in one place or another,” Lamont said. “We just went through an exercise where somebody says there was a white powder found at a voting site, and that discourages people.”
Brenda Bergeron, who leads the state’s division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, said the drill was a great opportunity to prepare for a wide range of issues.
“There are many creative, bad actors across the world,” Bergeron said. “But we are in a position here to work together both at the federal, state and local level to address anything that might come up.”
Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas (D) said the drill was especially important because early voting means there will be more than one election day, making disruptions more likely.
“When people think of emergencies, we often think of physical threats, etc., these days,” Thomas said. “But we also have to think about weather emergencies or natural emergencies having to do with downed phone lines, etc. With the advent of early voting, we now have more election days.”
Officials said this was the first time they held a drill to prepare for election security — but that it was not inspired by Bridgeport, where four campaign workers were arrested this week for alleged fraud in the 2019 mayoral election.
