Voting ends Tuesday in an an election that may determine extra than simply who controls the Home and the Senate.
Although the polls might shut Tuesday evening, the leads to some states are anticipated to take days, perhaps even weeks. That is completely regular, with tens of hundreds of thousands of electors casting their poll by mail, some conspiracy theorists and election deniers may view the delayed outcomes as fraud.
In consequence, fears of politically motivated violence in wake of the election are on the rise, with U.S. safety companies warning of an elevated risk of assaults as of late October.
With belief within the election course of waning amongst right-leaning voters, democracy specialists fear about who will settle for defeat and who will fly the false flag of fraud.
“The destiny of democracy actually hinges on whether or not or not losers settle for defeat and whether or not they acknowledge losses as losses,” mentioned Amel Ahmed, a political science professor on the College of Massachusetts Amherst. “When you have a worldview the place each loss quantities to the opposite facet dishonest … that simply usually presents a problem for the viability of democracy.”
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Lower than one week earlier than the polls closed, President Biden delivered a speech from Union Station in Washington, D.C., about reassuring the nation that everybody’s vote counts. He reiterated that tallying the ballots will take time, which means leads to some states might take days.
The president additionally instructed the nation that democracy itself was on the poll this yr, pleading with electors to think about the way forward for the nation as they forged their vote.
“You might have the facility. It is your alternative. It is your resolution,” Biden mentioned. “The destiny of the nation, the destiny of the soul of America lies the place it all the time does: with the individuals — in your palms, in your coronary heart, and your poll.”
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