By Ruby Chavez and Anika Khubchandani
ST. LOUIS/PHILADELPHIA/SACRAMENTO REGION – Cities across the nation – including the Sacramento region, New York, San Francisco, Washington D.C. and Los Angeles – are preparing for the worst on Election Day.
Retailers have boarded up their shop doors and windows in anticipation of election unrest. In Sacramento, downtown stores, hotels and government buildings were putting plywood over exterior windows.
However, officials from all over the U.S. appear to be attempting to keep their communities calm and “ensure a safe, free election day.”
For example, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner has declared her office, along with the City Board of Elections, will provide a hotline for voters to immediately call if they come across intimidation and/or harassment at the polls on election day.
Since her office is mainly worried about voters having their credentials challenged at the polls, Gardner stresses that “challengers cannot approach voters directly to request information or 
identification or invade their privacy.”
While challengers are allowed to contest voter eligibility under Missouri law, they can only raise the issue with an official poll worker who is authorized to make a determination about voting eligibility. Any voter must be given an affidavit ballot if their voting eligibility cannot be promptly verified at a polling location.
Especially due to the critical nature and importance of this election, Gardner emphasizes that both “Missouri and federal law make it illegal to threaten” and intimidate anyone from voting. Considering “a free and fair election is the foundation of our democracy,” she maintains that the Circuit Attorney’s office will launch an investigation into any sort of illegal activity.
The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office is another agency committed to ensuring a safe and free election day. District Attorney Larry Krasner announced that his office will be working in conjunction with the City Commissioners and Police Department to scrutinize instances of voter intimidation and harassment.
Never before has the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Election Task Force (ETF) been fully staffed for a whole month prior to the election and they will continue to work several weeks after November 3.
Krasner does not anticipate any interference, but he makes it clear that “anyone intending to steal Philadelphians’ votes by breaking the law to disrupt a fair and free election could find themselves in a jail cell, facing criminal charges and a Philadelphia jury wondering why you thought it was okay to steal their votes.”
The DA’s office has also established a local hotline for addressing “criminal attempts to interfere with or influence voting.”
Even beyond Election Day, the ETF will remain active until all election materials are reviewed and certified which could take up to three weeks due to the delay associated with mail-in ballots, such as military and overseas ballots, and the tabulation of voting machine totals.
Andrew Wellbrock, assistant district attorney and head of the Philadelphia ETF, reassures Philadelphia voters that “no electioneering can take place within 10 feet of entrance to a polling place,” adding that “only certified poll watchers who live in Philadelphia, election board workers, judges of elections, and voters may enter a polling place.”
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Notice it’s all liberal cities because everyone knows the rioting will be coming from the left if Trump wins. Conservatives don’t resort to this stuff.
Except when they do: Far-Right Groups Are Behind Most U.S. Terrorist Attacks, Report Finds.
It’s not like someone is going to riot on County Road 98 in the middle of a tomato field
There are already reports and video surfacing in Philadelphia of polling sites not allowing certified poll watchers to enter, of polling sites in some conservative leaning areas not being opened on time where voters had to leave without voting in order to get to work, of Democrat campaign literature being handed out to people in the voter lines, Democrat campaign material attached to the entrance of voting facilities and election officials blocking observation of absentee ballot processing.
I wonder if Krasner will jail some of these people? Something tells me he will look the other way.
Ferreting reports and noise are going to be very difficult. I expect lots of smoke today.
I’ve already watched several videos of election interference, the videos don’t lie. All so far in Philadelphia, a huge swing state. What I’ve seen already lends to there being multiple lawsuits.
I’ve seen lots of videos both ways today. Lot of smoke. In the end, unless it’s razor thin, won’t matter.
Yeah, but what’s happening in Philly is blatant election violations.
It already gives Trump plenty of ammo to fight the results if he needs to.
There is always a lot of stuff that happens. Most of the time you never hear about it because the margins are wide enough that it doesn’t impact the outcome. If the result is a few thousand difference, then you will see both sides pull out all sorts of stuff.
The stock market is certainly acting like Trump is going to win. Up 600 as I speak after a 450 point gain yesterday.
That is presumptuous on so many levels.
Not at all, Biden will raise corporate taxes, raise taxes on the people, possibly enact another COVID shutdown, a tax on stock trades, Biden is looking at Sanders and Warren for top economic posts who will further cramp the economy, more regulations, kill the oil and fracking business, green new deal economy stifling policies, etc….. I could go on forever….
You could go on forever and it would still be the same thing – attempting to turn something subjective into something you try to make objective.
I’ll bet you if Biden was to show a clear win tonight the market will tank tomorrow.
Keith has no doubt made a fortune in the stock market; so, I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss his predictions. On the other hand, the market hates uncertainty. So the recent gains may reflect the increasing likelihood that Biden will win. See? One doesn’t have to be a Trump supporter to just make stuff up.
I didn’t make up Biden’s campaign promises and policies, he did (or at least he was told what to say by his puppet masters). It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that those policies will hurt the economy. The one wild card is no matter who’s president if we get a working vaccine the economy and market will take off. But that won’t be because of policy or presidential actions, just happening to be president when it happens.
You didn’t make his campaign promises, but you did heavily inject your opinion into your analysis of what the policies will do. In point of fact, Moody’s heavily disagrees with you: https://www.moodysanalytics.com/-/media/article/2020/the-macroeconomic-consequences-trump-vs-biden.pdf – I’m not posting the link for the truth of their claims, only to make the point that your opinion is just that – an opinion, it’s subjective and based on your views and biases.
I mean no scheeet it’s my opinion. Just like you give your opinion all of the time.
Most of the posts on here are just people’s opinions.
So what does everyone think so far about either Trump or Biden’s chances?
The Vegas betting odds started with Biden being the clear favorite but now have flipped with the odds makers now showing Trump as the favorite to win. I don’t know what that means as far as elections go but as someone who likes to bet football games I know the odds makers are usually very good. But we’ll have to wait and see how good they are regarding tonight’s election.
One thing for sure, the pollsters got it wrong again. Biden could still pull it out but the races were nowhere near what the pollsters predicted.
There were not a huge number of surprises to be honest. We’ll see the final vote totals. I just think it is really hard to predict close statewide races and even poll for them. Everyone would have been better off last night if the states didn’t report partial election results.