Nobody can confidently predict the outcome. Everybody has reason to fear the chaos that may ensue, no matter who wins Tuesday’s presidential election.
In the meantime, it all keeps getting crazier.
As if it were not enough that a racist comic at Trump’s big rally at Madison Square Garden called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage,” President Biden also proved that at 81 you can act like a 10-year-old and call Trump supporters “garbage.” Despite Biden’s attempt to backtrack, that still means Puerto Rican Trump supporters—and there actually are some—have been insulted by both sides in the lead-up to what could be labeled the “Garbage Election,” complete with Trump taking questions from journalists in a garbage truck before speaking at a rally on Wednesday where he proudly donned an orange vest.
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Meanwhile, hundreds of ballots had been destroyed or damaged by drop box fires in the Pacific Northwest on Monday. That news was followed by word that the incendiary devices used in the arsons bore the words “Free Gaza,” as sources told The New York Times.
“There will be 24-hour enhanced security around ballot drop-off locations,” Washington State Gov. Jay Inslee assured voters in a statement.
On Tuesday, police in Neptune Beach, Florida, reported they had intervened when a half-dozen teenage Trump bros harassed a group of Harris supporters outside a public library. An 18-year-old registered Republican named Caleb James Williams was arrested for allegedly menacing two women, aged 71 and 54. A photo that police released of William wielding a machete also shows that he still has braces.
“The group was there for no other reason but for ill intentions, to cause a disturbance,” Police Chief Michael J. Key Jr. said at a press conference.
Also on Tuesday, Trump seized an opportunity to set the stage for another hyped stolen election claim after Pennsylvania authorities reported that they had discovered numerous questionable voter registration applications.
“Wow! York County, Pennsylvania, received THOUSANDS of potentially FRAUDULENT Voter Registration Forms and Mail-In Ballot Applications from a third party group,” Trump wrote in a post on X. “This on top of Lancaster County being caught with 2600 Fake Ballots and Forms, all written by the same person. Really bad ‘stuff.’ WHAT IS GOING ON IN PENNSYLVANIA??? Law Enforcement must do their job, immediately!!! WOW!!!”
In fact, there were no fake ballots and law enforcement was already on the case. Lancaster County District Attorney Heather Adams had announced that her office was investigating a significant number of questionable voter registration applications among a batch of some 2,600 that had been delivered to the county elections office shortly before the Oct. 21 deadline. She said at a press conference that a number of applications appeared to be in the same handwriting, but they were not all from the same person. The applications seemed to be from a registration drive conducted in recent months. She did not name whoever was responsible.
County Commissioner Julie Wheeler said in a statement obtained by the Associated Press that if an investigation discovers suspected fraud, the district attorney will investigate. Adams, meanwhile, did seem determined to prosecute them.
Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro told CNN that the situation is well in hand. He noted that when he was state attorney general, he had successfully handled 43 election challenges by Trump and his minions.
“I understand that Donald Trump wants to again use the same playbook where he tries to create chaos and stoke division and fear about our system,” Shapiro said. “But again, we will have a free and fair, safe and secure election in Pennsylvania, and the will of the people will be respected and protected.”
The Trump campaign did score two small legal victories in Pennsylvania this week. A Lancaster County judge extended by one day the deadline for voters to file in-person mail-in ballot applications because road closures in Allentown due to a Trump rally had made the election office inaccessible.
And, in Bucks County on Wednesday, the Trump campaign asked a judge to extend the deadline by one day because of long lines. The judge granted two days, until Friday.
That will give Trump one less excuse if he loses. But a defeat will surely result in many more lawsuits in Pennsylvania and any other states he does not carry. The current chaos would prove to be just a hint of what is to come if the garbage fire election leads to a full conflagration that threatens democracy itself.
The traditional refuge in such dire danger has been the U. S. Supreme Court, but its conservative majority sent a troubling signal on Wednesday.
Back on Aug. 7, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin issued an executive order for county election officials to conduct a daily removal of suspected non-citizens from the voting rolls. The date of the order coincided with the start of the 90-day pre-election “quiet period” established by the National Voter Registration Act. Election officials are supposed to put a temporary hold on such list maintenance, lest anyone be mistakenly removed and left without adequate time to get reinstated.
Youngkin proceeded nonetheless, removing some 1,600 voters, including a man who was born in the U.S. but had failed to affirm his citizenship by mail within 14 days because the notice for him to do so had been sent to an old address in Brooklyn.
The U.S. Justice Department and several civil rights groups went to federal court and a judge agreed to reinstate them. Youngkin went to the Court of Appeals, which also found against him. He then took it to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The conservative majority found in favor of Youngkin. The ruling was a huge victory for Youngkin, and therefore Trump, because the electoral stakes were so small.
Taking into consideration voters who actually are citizens, it is likely less than 1,500 votes were involved. And for that, the justices were willing to abet the violation of a quiet period long established by federal law and deprive legitimate citizens of the right to vote.
It is hard not to think they were letting everybody know where they stand should the chaos come.
