U.S. Election Held under Tension and Intimidation

Islam News- by Rayan Haidar- Today is the awaited day in America, it’s Election Day. Millions of the U.s citizens had already casted their votes in mail and many are at this moment casting theirs.

With tensions spreading across the U.S for this awaited day, officials have been preparing for possibilities they might confront.

“It’s the unknown that creates all the anxiety for us,” Tampa Police Chief, Brian Dugan said in an interview on Monday as reported in The Washington Post.

For Election Day, widespread emphasis for the possible fallouts is being prepared. Police officers are braced over several nations to face any fallout.

Even though, loud activities around polling sites are no inherent violence of the law, but actions may lead into illegal voter intimidation; that is if they prevented people from voting or forcing them to change their vote.

Moreover, there is fear of “possible law enforcement bias” as The Washington Post mentioned. For that there are many officers are expressing their support for President Trump in New York and Miami, plus in at least three states.

In Minneapolis, the city that is still affected by George Floyd’s death, covered its storefronts with plywood in case of any “new focused-protests” for citing a lack of confidence in the city’s police officers. 
“People in general have very high anxiety as it relates to the upcoming election,” said the Chicago police superintendent, David Brown. But, authorities are assuring the voters that they will be protected during strained times.

Leader of Fulton County Ga. Election, Richard Barron, said that police officers are usually in the requested places only, but this year “we are doing that at every location because, yes, we do have some concerns.”

The deadline of the Election Day ends today on Nov.3, but the final result is not to be announced before days or even weeks. This delay- which President Trump does not approve of- is a must for several reasons, as Axios reported:

•Counting mail ballots won’t be done by Tuesday night in many states.

•The state law of Pennsylvania prevents from counting mail-in ballots before the day of election.

•There might be 10 times as many mail ballots this year than 2016 elections, said Pennsylvania Secretary of State.

Therefore, Trump’s fear of losing the elections made him doubt in the decency of vote counting, especially the mail-in ballots casted before Nov.3, emphasizing that only the votes casted in the day of the election should be confirmed.

On the other side, Bernie Sanders said in a statement to Axios, “That has been his strategy for months, and nobody should fall for it,” then added “It’s why he is demonizing mail-in ballots and sabotaging the postal service. … We will not allow that to happen. Every vote must and will be counted.”

So, who will be the President of the United States? Who will lead the country during this pandemic? And most importantly what might be the results after the big announcement?