MACON, Ga. — If you work for one of Georgia's Board of Elections offices, now you have to know how to use Narcan.
That's because someone recently sent fentanyl-laced letters to the Fulton County Board of Elections office.
A group of Georgia election officials offered the training at their annual meeting in Athens this week.
The conference of Georgia's Association of Voter Registration and Election Offices typically happens once a year, but this was their second meeting due to the Presidential election coming up next November.
Bibb's Elections Supervisor Thom Gillion says the elections world is always changing.
“The equipment has changed," he explained. "Procedures always change."
However, this year’s conference was different.
“It's very different than what I signed up for. We had as much personal safety training as we did election duties training,” Marion Hatton said.
She’s the Jones County Elections Supervisor and says the conference addressed the recent fentanyl-laced letter sent to the Fulton County Board of Elections office and other offices across the nation.
“I’m kind of scared,” Hatton said. “Am I going to start opening mail with gloves and a mask?”
In response, the training included knowing how to use Narcan, which is used to treat narcotics overdoses.
“There was a briefing on de-escalating conflicts, which is good anywhere. There was also a discussion on active shooter situations,” Gillon explained.
All of these topics were discussed at the conference for the first time. Gillon says while the fentanyl incident in Fulton County concerned him, elections offices in bigger counties are more used to seeing conflict.
“It came in very handy. Hopefully, they're skills we won’t have to use,” Gillon said.
Hatton says people's attitudes towards politics have changed in the past few years.
“The whole emotion around the world of elections– when people feel something they feel it very strongly,” she said.
Hatton says their voting kiosks are only 20 feet away from where she sits. While she's never felt unsafe, she says it's been unsettling.
“Just to know that for doing my job, I could become a target, but that's just part of the world we live in,” Hatton said.
As the political world will change again with the presidential election coming up next November, they just want to be prepared.
Gillion says Narcan was distributed to every board of election office in the state. He says they were also trained to notice signs of a fentanyl overdose.