Barricades and Bulletproof Glass: A County Prepares for Election Day

With northeastern Pennsylvania awash again in the reds and oranges of a dazzling autumn, workers recently planted boulders around a government building in downtown Wilkes-Barre to address a seasonal ugliness. But this was no beautification project.

Luzerne County is bracing for Election Day.

Across the country, the doubts and anger ginned up by the spurious election-fraud claims of former President Donald J. Trump have unsettled the once-routine civic task of collecting and counting votes. With the specter of political violence looming, the Department of Homeland Security has advised hundreds of concerned communities on election safety.

At the center of this maelstrom of distrust is Luzerne County, which, for some, has become Exhibit A for election conspiracy theories. Unnerved by local chatter, county officials have implemented several extraordinary security measures — including a primitive fortification of large rocks around the county building in Wilkes-Barre where the Bureau of Elections is located.

The boulder installation in this swing-state city of 45,000 could serve as a metaphor for the United States of 2024, in which planning for the sacred exercise of democracy might include preparing for a car bomb.

“We’re a microcosm,” said the county manager, Romilda Crocamo, the recipient of repeated threats. The most recent one, serious enough that she alerted law enforcement, was delivered by text to a close relative who is very private and not involved in politics.

“Somebody had to go through a lot of effort to make that connection,” Ms. Crocamo said.

Emily Cook, the director of the county’s Bureau of Elections, has also been threatened, both on social media and in person. “People say that I deserved to be executed,” she said.