Your School or Library as a Polling Place: Election Site Security for November 5, 2024
Part of the Service, Safety, and Security Series with Dr. Steve Albrecht

OVERVIEW: 

The United States national presidential election this year promises to be an emotional event. It’s hard to recall when an election has created such strong feelings on both sides. If your school or library has served as a polling place for your community in the past and will do so again, you have certainly thought of the pending security concerns related to the protection of your facility, staff, poll workers, and the ballots. If this is the first time your school or library will be a polling site, you’ve probably already started having a lot of meetings with county election coordinators, your County Clerk’s office, the Registrar of Voters, and perhaps even the Secretary of State’s office in your state.

November 5, 2024 will be a long day of work for the school and library employees and poll volunteers who commit their time and energy to a safe and successful election process. This session will help schioil and library leaders and employees in every state to better understand the staff, facility, and ballot protection issues; legal and fair use of the building; weather concerns; and how to handle issues around on-site electioneering, protests, and news media visits.

Dr. Steve Albrecht has interviewed a state expert on election safety and security and will show a short video segment as part of this webinar.

LEARNING AGENDA:

• • Installing signage, voting booths, desks, and tables.
  • Keeping your school or library and the ballot process safe from protesters, trespassers, vandals, and thieves.
  • Protecting voters, staff, and election day volunteers.
  • Preventing intimidation, harassment, hate speech, sidewalk or entry door blocking, and aggressive electioneering on your site.
  • Getting early help from city, county, and state election-related officials.
  • Preparing for law enforcement help.
  • Handling media inquiries and media visits.
  • Cybersecurity concerns.
  • Watch a video interview with election security expert, Shane Schoeller, County Clerk, Greene County (MO).

This 60-minute session is another in our Safety Series. The presentation slides will be available to all who participate.

DATE: Thursday, September 12th, 2024, at 2:00 pm US - Eastern Time

DATE: Thursday, September 12th, 2024, at 2:00 pm US - Eastern Time

DR. STEVE ALBRECHT

Since 2000, Dr. Steve Albrecht has trained thousands of library employees in 28+ states, live and online, in service, safety, and security. His programs are fast, entertaining, and provide tools that can be put to use immediately in the library workspace with all types of patrons.

In 2015, the ALA published his book, Library Security: Better Communication, Safer Facilities. His new book, The Safe Library: Keeping Users, Staff, and Collections Secure, was just published by Rowman & Littlefield.

Steve holds a doctoral degree in Business Administration (D.B.A.), an M.A. in Security Management, a B.A. in English, and a B.S. in Psychology. He is board-certified in HR, security management, employee coaching, and threat assessment.

He has written 25 books on business, security, and leadership topics. He lives in Springfield, Missouri, with six dogs and two cats.