Election 2016: Guns at Polling Places Concern Officials

RICHMOND, VA — Many reports have been filed this election cycle about whether citizens with gun permits should be allowed to pack heat when going to the local polling station. It's an issue that wasn't really a concern four years ago but now has become a concern as partisan rancor appears ready to spill over on Election Day.

Republican nominee Donald Trump repeatedly has trotted out the line that this presidential election is "rigged," and repeatedly has urged his supporters to stand watch at some polling stations to make sure everything's on the up-and-up.

Judging by the videos of his rallies, during which some of his supporters openly display their firearms, Trump's fiery rhetoric has some election officials concerned — and some politicians emboldened.

For example, after the Prince William County electoral board reportedly was mulling a one-day ban on weapons at private-property polling places, according to the Washington Post, Virginia Del. Bob Marshall sent a letter to the board saying, accurately, that state law only prohibits guns from schools and courthouses.

And late last summer, after Trump challenged gun owners to do something about what he termed Clinton’s plans to “essentially abolish the Second Amendment” and called on poll watchers to prevent what he’s predicting to be a “rigged” election, Indiana officials, among those in other states, also became wary of the heated rhetoric but, according to Fox59, were left in something of a flux.

In Prince William County's case, the decision on whether to bar guns at polling places has to be made by the private sites, such as churches, community centers and fire halls.

As to whether the election is, as Trump says, rigged?

"The checks and balances that are in place make that virtually impossible in Virginia," Fairfax director of elections Brenda Cabrera said when asked about it Wednesday. "Both parties have access to everything we do at our polling places."

Photo: Erik (HASH) Hersman, Creative Commons