Voting in the 1,201 citywide polling sites will be “safe and secure” on election day as millions go to cast their ballots in the controversial presidential election on Nov. 3.
Chief of Department Terence Monahan said there is no credible threat for any of the polling sites in New York City and at least one police officer will be assigned to every polling which is mandated by law. In addition, there will be rapid response teams spread out throughout the city of hundreds of officers should need to arise at any conceivable incident.
“Currently, there are no known threats nor do we expect it, but the NYPD will be out there to protect the right to poll at the polls,” said Monahan, adding that officers will be assigned to the 88 locations that will be opening on Saturday, Oct. 24 to Nov. 1 for early voting.
“We will have hundreds of additional police at the ready if needed to respond to any of the voting locations,” he said.
Officials said they have been monitoring social media, and have been training for any eventualities and have been providing additional training to officers in the field for numerous scenarios.
Monahan said he didn’t expect anything different from past election days, though he did expect a large turnout.
“We look around the country to see what has occurred and we didn’t find anything to support us doing anything different – if something changes, we will be ready,” Monahan said.
Deputy Commissioner of Counterterrorism John Miller also assured the public that there was no “credible threat” though police are looking for any threats of intimidation or fraud at the polls. He added that they are more concerned with cyber threats, including ransom ware, hacking, tampering and other on-line issues that New York City Cyber Command will be monitoring.
Police are also watching for any demonstrations that might seek to interfere with the right to vote, but Monahan said there is currently “no evidence that this is a threat.”
“If people protest, we will facilitate for them, but we don’t want to see this city damaged,” Monahan said. “If anyone tries to interfere with the right to vote we will take action. We don’t expect any large demonstrations at this time. Even the extreme left and the right, they want people to vote.”
President Donald Trump has claimed the possibility of voter fraud, but officials say they see zero evidence of this in New York City.
