Peoria-area county sheriffs are going to have extra deputies on shifts for Election Day.
“I would like to believe that we’re not going to have any problems, but we have to prepare,” said Tazewell County Sheriff Jeff Lower.
Lower and Peoria County Sheriff Brian Asbell said they are prepared to handle any security or voter intimidation problems that may develop Tuesday – and beyond.
“We have plans in place not just for Election Day, but even post-Election Day in case there’s issues that arise,” said Asbell. “Obviously, we’ll take care of the home front first, but we’ll be responsible for pretty much the whole I-74 court or across the middle part of the state.
“We put a lot of concentration just on Tuesday, but we’re fully prepared; there might be situations after the Election Day as a result of the election or possibly not having a result in the timely matter. So there’s a lot of plans in place.”
Both Asbell and Lower said they have been consulting with police chiefs all across their counties. They said that while deputies won’t be “sitting on polling places,” they will be in close proximity and available at a moment’s notice.
“We’re going to have a quick response detail just dedicated to polling locations in the county jurisdiction,” said Asbell.
“I've been distributing (locations of) all the polling places within the county to all of chiefs,” said Lower. “We’ve got all of our deputies are aware of where they’re at and we'll be ready to respond to any problems that come up.”
The sheriffs said they have been in contact with state and federal intelligence officials and have not been informed of any credible threats of voter intimidation.
“We’re continuing to monitor social media, but I don't expect anything more than what we usually have on Election Day,” said Asbell. “You might have some campaign violations where you might have materials being distributed too close to a polling points, or what I often call the ‘lone wolf’ where you might have an individual that is causing a disturbance. That’s somewhat typical.”
Asbell said that conversations with Peoria County Election Commission executive director Tom Bride suggest large participation in early voting alternatives may reduce risk on Tuesday.
“That’s going to assist with the sheer volume of people that potentially could be at polling locations,” he said.
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