One in four Americans predict riots after the election and 10% fear a civil war whoever wins, poll finds
Fighting has broken out at polling stations and election workers have undergone active shooter drills.
There have been threats to blow up political offices and ballot boxes have been set on fire.
Ahead of what could be the closest presidential election in history, the staff charged with overseeing Tuesday’s election is already facing chaos and a readiness for violence.
As memories of 2020 flood back, many have taken extra precautions to turn local sites into fortresses and extra officers will be deployed nationwide on November 5.
The aftermath could also be fraught with friction, with some state officials warning that it could take days for results to be finalized in some of the seven battleground states.
The razor-thin margins between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris in the polls show that the outcome could depend on just a few thousand votes.
According to an extensive poll by DailyMail.com, the concerns are justified.
A Trump supporter, left, confronts a Harris fan outside an event for Tim Walz in Bristol Township, Pennsylvania, last week.
The survey of 1,003 likely voters, conducted together with JL Partners, found that more than 25 percent believe there will be riots if Harris or Trump wins, and 10 percent fear a civil war will break out.
Just over one in five (22 percent) think a Democratic victory would lead to a repeat of January 6, and 21 percent think election sites or Democratic officials would be targeted for direct attacks.
Harris voters are more likely to believe there will be riots, while Republicans are divided over whether the election will be fair.
However, if Donald Trump narrowly wins the Electoral College, Americans believe there is a greater chance of ‘violence in the streets’ in the form of furious protests.
Among the former president’s former supporters, 13 percent think a civil war would break out if the Republicans were defeated.
Among Harris’s supporters, nine percent believed there would be a full-scale nationwide conflict if they won.
A similar number of Trump (18 percent) and Harris (16 percent) voters would support the use of force if they believed the election was unfair.
Fraud allegations across the country caused chaos in the closest states like Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona four years ago.
Election workers received death threats and were confronted by armed Trump supporters at polling stations.
The situation was unprecedented and has forced state governments to invest in resources such as more voting machines and security.
With the country still divided in support for two candidates with starkly different visions for the country, there are still concerns about a repeat.
Pennsylvania, perhaps the most important state in the race, has already been at the center of fraud allegations that have made their way to the Supreme Court.
In the Keystone State, Edward Dieri Jr. accused of threatening to blow up a Republican office in Montgomery County.
Jeffrey Michael Kelly was arrested in Arizona on October 23 for allegedly shooting a Democratic campaign office three times.
He was also accused of posting signs outside his home with razor blades and a small bag of white powder attached to them.
In San Antonio, Texas, a man allegedly attacked a poll worker who twice asked him to remove his MAGA hat.
Many states, including Texas, ban political clothing at polling places.
Authorities working to extinguish a fire at a polling place in Vancouver, WA, began early Monday morning. It was one of two fires set early Monday at two polling places in two separate states
In Oregon and Washington, the FBI and police are still searching for an arsonist who set fire to three ballot boxes.
A Democratic congressman predicted last Thursday that “blood could be spilled” if Harris wins.
Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn, told NewsNation’s Dan Abrams that he believes the Democratic nominee will win both the Electoral College and the popular vote.
But he warned that he believes Trump “will stop at nothing” if the vice president is declared the winner.
Rep. Cohen told Abrams he expects Harris to receive at least 5 million more votes than Trump.
“But I don’t think Trump will stop at anything. It will be in court, it will be in lawsuits, it will be telling people again to go to the Capitol if you want to have a country and fight like hell,” he continued.
“I mean, we’ll… there could be blood and there’s some concern.”
