Several states moved to restrict guns at polling places this year. Two succeeded
Twenty-two states and Washington D.C. explicitly limit firearms at voting sites. The laws vary in scope: In 15 states and D.C., civilians can neither openly nor concealed carry a firearm at polling locations. The remaining seven states only prohibit one or the other.
Ten states—Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, and Washington, in addition to Colorado and Massachusetts—passed their laws over the past two years, in step with increasing concerns about election-related violence.
On November 1, the FBI and Election Threats Task Force officials a national command center in Washington D.C. and several other cities to monitor and combat threats of violence on Election Day, according to the Department of Justice. The plan was to close the center after a week, but it could remain open longer if violent threats persist.
State and local governments have also made plans to protect against potential election-related violence this November. In a 2024 survey of almost 1,000 election officials by the Brennan Center for Justice, roughly 40% of respondents said they had enhanced the physical security of their polling sites since 2020.
Georgia officials installed panic buttons at polling locations to alert law enforcement to threats, and in Arizona, law enforcement has assigned snipers to the rooftops of a Maricopa County voting tabulation site and deployed drones to spot potential attackers. In other states, election officials have reinforced windows to make them shatterproof and hired armed security guards.
Brian Michael Jenkins, a senior adviser at the RAND Corporation who authored a about addressing threats of political violence in this year's elections, said polling-site gun bans are an important part of guarding voters against intimidation and preventing hostile interactions from combusting into deadly violence.
He recalled an incident from October 24, when a Texas man punched a 69-year-old poll worker after being asked to remove his Donald Trump hat, which violated a state law against displaying campaign memorabilia in polling locations. "The concern is if somebody there is armed, that can easily escalate into a shooting," Jenkins said.
"Given an angry, polarized population that is already very vocal about not accepting election results and willing to use violence if their candidate doesn't win," Jenkins said, "I generally favor the idea that we try to keep guns out of the equation."
Republican state lawmakers have generally opposed the polling-site gun restrictions. Bills in Colorado and Massachusetts passed without a single GOP vote. In New Mexico, the next most recent state to pass a ban, Republicans in the state Senate signed on to the legislation only after the party's caucus chair, Mark Moores, added an amendment exempting concealed carry permit holders.
"This is the right thing to do in this environment," Moores said after the Senate unanimously approved the bill.
In a 2022 nationwide survey of voting-age adults, Beirich's organization, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, found that 63% of respondents supported banning guns at the polls, including more than half of all Republicans surveyed. Voters said they feared that firearms could lead to both intimidation and shootings.
