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US Election 2020: Behind shutters, America holds its breath
President Donald Trump hoped for a victory party inside a fenced-up White House, first lady Melania Trump voted, and Democratic nominee Joe Biden visited his childhood home as Americans on Tuesday awaited the grand finale of a pandemic-hit election at the end of a rancorous campaign.
President Donald Trump hoped for a victory party inside a fenced-up White House, first lady Melania Trump voted, and Democratic nominee Joe Biden visited his childhood home as Americans on Tuesday awaited the grand finale of a pandemic-hit election at the end of a rancorous campaign.
Numerous businesses and other establishments from New York to Washington DC have been boarded up fearing unrest on election night in a grim reminder of a country on edge.
Lines of honking SUVs, pickup trucks and motorcycles, flying flags for President Trump are raising security concerns, election experts said, particularly on the last day of voting.
One of the caravans, known as “Trump Trains,” surrounded a Biden campaign bus and one member allegedly sideswiped a car, resulting in an FBI probe. A slew of Trump Train events are planned for Tuesday. Several are advertised as ending or going past polling stations. Election security experts said they are concerned the rallies could break laws, intimidate voters or spiral into violent fights.
Massachusetts has kept 1,000 National Guards personnel on alert for deployment against any violence and Oregon has declared a state of emergency in Portland, which saw a prolonged bout of unrest months ago.
Trump flagged the possibility of violence himself in a tweet posted late Monday during his five-rally blitz across four states in which he complained about a Supreme Court decision on voting in Pennsylvania. “It will also induce violence in the streets,” he wrote. “Something must be done!”
Social media giants Twitter and Facebook outlined plans for placing warning labels on posts from candidates and campaigns that claim victory before official results. Both on Monday flagged posts by Trump deriding the US Supreme Court decision on Pennsylvania ballots.
Twitter hid the tweet behind a label which said the content was “disputed” and “might be misleading”. Facebook added a disclaimer to Trump’s post saying that voting by mail and voting in person have a “history of trustworthiness” in the US, with voter fraud being extremely rare.
The Supreme Court had last week allowed extended deadlines for receiving mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania and North Carolina, states pivotal to Trump’s re-election chances.
Trump’s warning of violence was part of his closing statement on Monday, in which he aired old grievances about the Russia probe and new ones.
“You look at what’s going on in Philadelphia - we’re watching you, governor,” he said at a rally in Pennsylvania. “Make sure your governor doesn’t cheat,...we have a lot of eyes watching, a lot of very powerful eyes here.”
