The Sconi

The Election Security Task Force expressed a litany of security and safety concerns about the election process in Dane County, according to a recent report.

“Dane County needs a modern, secure facility to house election equipment, ballots, and other materials and a place where election officials can feel safe doing their job,” County Clerk Scott McDonell recently told Channel3000.com.

Among other concerns, the report also raised anxiety about the security of the administration and the buildings the election materials are kept in, noting that the election materials are not well protected against security breaches and incidents like flooding or fires.

“Dane County needs a modern, secure facility to house election equipment, ballots, and other materials and a place where election officials can feel safe doing their job,” County Clerk Scott McDonell recently told Channel3000.com. | Facebook

While stressing that greater allocation for security measures like barriers, locks, and cameras should be implemented before the 2024 presidential election, task force members added that smaller steps immediately should be taken; as the risk of fraud, violence, and tampering is much higher after the 2020 presidential election and the clerk should be fully aware of such risks.

McDonell added that there has been a series of threats against certain clerks to go along with a growing number of broadly concerning incidents. While preparing the report, the task force employed the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to do a security check on the City County Building that houses the clerks’ offices, and during that time a person wearing camouflage and a face mask created a disturbance inside the Madison clerk’s office.

Among the final recommendations outlined in the report was that officials limit public access to certain buildings and move clerks and elections officials to an area or building that has greater control over who can enter, which authorities have already begun to do by allowing marriage license access online.