WASHINGTON – In the nation’s capital, police have cancelled time off and stocked up on riot supplies in case of post-election unrest.
In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott has put the National Guard on standby.
President Donald Trump has resisted saying he would give up power peacefully, insisting repeatedly that he can only lose if Democrats cheat.
Fear is widespread, as Americans eye each other with suspicion.
Three out of four voters are concerned about violence on Election Day or afterward, according to a USA Today/Suffolk University poll.
Only a tiny fraction of Americans are prepared to take to the streets if they feel the election was stolen.
But fear of election violence is widespread. Some worry about right wing militias, others about Black Lives Matter.
In California, more than four in 10 Biden supporters and more than half of Trump supporters believe violence is “very likely” in case of disputes about the vote count. And overall, nearly 9 in 10 worry that others won’t accept the outcome.
The civic engagement nonprofit More in Common, one of many groups searching for ways to de-escalate tensions around this election, has found a huge gap between partisans' own willingness to engage in violence and perceptions of the other side’s restraint.
The good news is that even if their party’s nominee claims the election was stolen from him, 97% of Republicans and 96% of Democrats say violence would not be justified.
But half the voters in each party fear violence from the other side in that scenario – including physical attacks and acts of destruction such as riots or looting.
The mutual mistrust is itself a powder keg. And in fact, 3% to 4% from each side refuses to rule out violence, despite the social stigma of telling that to a pollster.
“First and foremost, it speaks to of course the polarization that’s occurring right now in our country. … The temperature has risen,” said a co-author of the report, Christiana Lang, a senior associate at More in Common. “The reality will depend on what scenario occurs. Uncertainty in any form causes humans to dig in to their beliefs and their fears.”
In email blasts in the past week, the Trump campaign has warned that “the Democrats and Fake News are going to stoop to levels we’ve never seen before to try to STEAL the Election.”
Roger Stone, the Trump political fixer who avoided prison on seven felony counts when the president commuted his sentence in July, penned an op-ed in which he disavowed violence while stoking doubt about the honesty of the election.
“If there is sufficient credible evidence of voter fraud which would mar the results and if the fake news media and the violent shock-troops of the Democrat Party are attempting to stampede the country into accepting the illegitimate election of Vice President Joe Biden, the dispute must still be settled in the courts rather than the streets,” he wrote.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick – Trump’s campaign co-chair in Texas -- cast the threat of violence as imminent, and echoed his warnings about nefarious deeds by his adversaries.
“If the president loses Pennsylvania, or North Carolina or Florida, he’ll lose it because they stole it. I believe that in my heart,” Patrick said Thursday on the Mark Davis Show. “If he wins, or whenever it’s announced, or if he’s ahead on that night, I’m afraid our cities are going to burn in America.… I expect trouble. I’m sorry to say that. I hope it doesn’t happen.”
As for activating the National Guard, Patrick added, Texans haven’t engaged in the level of upheaval seen in Philadelphia and other cities this year “but you have to be prepared.”
