Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said this week that her department will soon roll out a new way for election workers to alert law enforcement of safety concerns at polling sites.
Speaking at a recent national press foundation event in Detroit, Benson described the new system as a "panic button" that would let election workers text law enforcement.
"We will be rolling out a panic button type of communication for every election worker, if clerks work with us to implement it in their particular voting location, to be able to text if something occurs similar to what Georgia did in 2022," she said.
Benson said the program, first reported by the Gongwer news service, arose out of a series of meetings between county clerks and emergency responders.
“We've done a number of scenario planning exercises with clerks all around the state with just about every clerk from Traverse City, Marquette, to Detroit, to Grand Rapids and Flint, where we have brought law enforcement, first responders, and clerks together to go through different scenarios, tabletop exercises, so that we know and they know who to call, what to do if someone does show up armed and dangerous,” Benson said.
The state is piloting the system in the upcoming August primary and hopes to have it fully in place by the November general election, said Benson.