panic button

Carlos Perea, an immigrant rights advocate who supported the measure, said those groups “hit the panic button.”

But as I wrote when he was elected to his first term, you can’t hit all your panic buttons at the same time.

Polling places and locations where ballots are counted have beefed up security in advance of Tuesday’s election, deploying bomb- and firearm-sniffing dogs, metal detectors, panic buttons and even rooftop snipers to protect workers and voters.

And in other parts of the country, law enforcement is staging near polling stations and officials are installing panic buttons, among other measures to protect poll workers and ballots.

The most common measure being taken is collaborating with law enforcement, she said, but some polling places have installed panic buttons, bullet-resistant glass panels or electronic security measures.