After US elections, America faces dark clouds

The US election campaign, the world’s longest and most expensive, ends next week but it will probably take days before the winner will be announced. No matter whether it will be Democrat Kamala Harris or Donald Trump, a majority of Americans fear a violent aftermath.

According to a poll taken 12 days before November 5, almost two-thirds of those who responded anticipated post-election violence.

Such fears have been stoked by two attempts to assassinate former president Donald Trump, a tsunami of misinformation, increasingly harsh rhetoric and memories of the January 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol in Washington by followers of Trump.

They wanted to stop the peaceful transfer of power, a hallmark of a functioning democracy, from Trump, who claimed the elections were rigged, to Democrat Joe Biden and his running mate, Kamala Harris.

Also read: US election: Opinion poll shows Harris holds narrow lead over Trump, but razor-thin edge starting to fray

Her campaign for the presidency has featured numerous ads with videos of the unprecedented attack on the Capitol as a reminder of the first coup attempt in American history. Crowds waving Trump flags broke through police barriers, smashed windows and rampaged through the halls.

More than 170 police officers were wounded and one died. A rioter was shot by Capitol police as she tried to crawl through a smashed window. Trump was impeached for incitement of insurrection a week before his term officially expired. The Senate acquitted him, falling short of the 60-vote majority needed to convict.

Trump still insists the 2020 elections were stolen, called those sentenced to prison terms (around 250) “patriots” and termed January 6, 2021 “a day of love.” Neither Trump nor his running mate, JD Vance, have committed to accept the result of next week’s elections.

Fears of fresh violence are shared by voters of both parties – 70% of Democrats and 59% of Republicans surveyed on how they viewed the election aftermath.

Police in Washington are so concerned about the unrest that Police Chief Pamela Smith has said she plans to draw an additional 4,000 officers from around the country to help maintain order between election day and the new president’s inauguration next January 6.

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said the bureaucratic procedures for calling in the National Guard had also changed to make it easier for police to request swift help in the 11-week period between next Tuesday and inauguration day.

Bowser, a Democrat in a thoroughly democratic city, painted different scenarios for post-election events.

No need for police enforcement or the National Guard, she told reporters, if Harris wins to become the first woman president and commander-in-chief in US history. In that case, “the issue is probably a million people will be here who are celebrating and who are in good spirits. But that also presents challenges to make sure everybody can do it safely.”

A string of polls has shown a slight lead for Harris on the popular vote but in America’s antiquated electoral system, the candidate who wins most votes does not necessarily win. In 2016, for example, Hillary Clinton had almost 2.9 million more popular votes than Trump.

But Trump won the Electoral College with 306 votes against Clinton’s 232. Dating back to 1787, the Electoral College has 538 members who function as intermediaries to select the president and vice president. Each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia is allocated electors equal to the number of its representatives and senators.

The system favours small and rural states and in this election, victory depends on the votes of seven “swing states” where surveys show there are still voters who have not decided on which candidate they prefer.

They are Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and the number of undecided voters there is thought to be fewer than 200,000, a sliver of the 244 million Americans eligible to vote.

Watch: US Elections 2024: Donald Trump Delivers Final Arguments in New York

It is on the undecided voters that the rival campaigns have been spending most of their efforts, with TV ads, door-to-door visits, fliers, yard signs, town halls and mass rallies.

The money spent on the elections overall is mind-boggling and has no parallel anywhere in the world.

The 2024 election is estimated to be the most expensive ever, according to Open Secrets, a non-partisan group that tracks campaign spending. Spending on all federal races, the group reckons, is close to $16 billion.

A sizable portion of that money mountain comes from a number of super-wealthy people. They include the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, an immigrant from South Africa, who joined the Trump campaign in the final stage of the elections.

Also read: How US presidential elections in 2020 led to Capitol attack which sent democracy into throes?

Most Americans are uncomfortable with the vast expense of money spent on election campaigns that could be better spent on schools, housing or infrastructure. According to Pew, a Washington-based think tank, 72% of Americans want limits on campaign spending.

Since he endorsed Trump after a gunman opened fire on the former president, Musk is estimated to have given almost $120 million to the Trump campaign. In mid-October, Musk started a raffle to award $1 million a day to a voter who signed a pledge to support the right to free speech and bear arms.

Both are issues that have figured prominently in Republican campaigns that portray Democrats as champions of censoring speech and intent on ending the right to own arms enshrined in the Second Amendment of the US Constitution.

That perennial claim suffered something of a blow when Kamala Harris made the surprise admission in an interview that she has long owned a gun, a Glock to be precise, and would not hesitate to shoot an intruder.

Disclaimer: The views of the writer do not represent the views of WION or ZMCL. Nor does WION or ZMCL endorse the views of the writer.