WASHINGTON — With Election Day exactly two weeks away, D.C. is preparing for the time between the election and the inauguration.
Mayor Muriel Bowser and city leaders met Tuesday to discuss preparations for that period, which includes Election Day on Nov. 5, Jan. 6, 2025 and the presidential inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025. This will be the first year since the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, that Congress will be meeting to certify electoral college votes.
Christopher Rodriguez, assistant city administrator, said the District has been planning for this election season for nearly four years.
“In many respects, our preparations for 2024 started on January 7, of 2021, when we realized that we had to think about security a little bit different and make sure that our relationships with our federal partners were strong and that we knew what they knew,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said the mayor requested that Jan. 6, 2025 be designated a National Special Security Event (NSSE) by the Department of Homeland Security. This means the Secret Service is responsible for bringing federal resources from the White House and the Capitol to local public safety agencies.
Jan. 6 joins the three days around the inauguration, Jan. 19 through 21, which are always NSSE designated every four years. Bowser said the District learned a lesson that it needs better communication with federal branches from Jan. 6, 2021.
“That is what the National Special Security Event status provides,” Bowser said. “So you have a command and control system that is led by the United States Secret Service that coordinates not only the administration and the Congress but among local authorities as well.”
Bowser said ahead of Election Day, Jan. 6 and Inauguration Day, there have not been any credible threats leveraged toward the District or those events at this time. D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department will be working closely with the D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency.
“Part of our discussion with the council members is just the levels of watch and how we will turn up our activities based on what's happening on the ground, including our intelligence gathering from federal sources,” Bowser said.
One point of contention from the response to Jan. 6, 2021, was the delayed response from the National Guard.
This year, Bowser said the city is making plans to communicate ahead of time. Bowser said the city has not yet made a request for the National Guard, but that they have been actively working with the Department of Defense on their planning.
“When we have a specific request, we will advance it,” Bowser said. “We may even do something that we haven't done, kind of advance a preliminary request so that they can start planning. And if we need to dial it up or dial it back, we'll do that.”
Bowser said the plans need to be as specific as possible so that the National Guard approves the request. To improve chances of that, Bowser said they need specific numbers and locations. A preliminary request, though, might give the National Guard more time to prepare a response, Bowser said.
“It's not usual to do it this far out, because not all of the perimeters have been established yet, for example,” Bowser said. “And so as we get more concrete information, we'll look at our own resources, we'll look at law enforcement, mutual support that we're getting and we're looking at the best way to deploy the Guard.”