A Terrible, No Good, Very Bad, Nightmare Election Day

FOR PERHAPS THE FIRST TIME IN OUR HISTORY, ORDINARY AMERICANS ARE WORRIED COMPILED BY BENJAMIN WOFFORD ABOUT WHETHER THE WORLD’S OLDEST DEMOCRACY CAN ACTUALLY PULL OFF A DEMOCRATIC ELECTION. AND PLENTY OF POLITICAL PROS ARE WORRYING RIGHT ALONG WASHIINGTONIAN WITH THEM. WE ASKED A BIPARTISAN GROUP OF FIVE EXPERTS TO UNSPOOL THEIR OWN ★ SPECIFIC DISASTER SCENARIOS. HERE’S WHAT’S KEEPING EACH OF THEM UP AT NIGHT. ILLUSTRATIONS BY JENNY ROSENBERG 39

Seeing victory slip away, insurrection.” Invoking both the of all party affiliations to refrain of mail-in ballots. Postal exec- Trump’s campaign goes to court in authority to use active-duty troops from violence and demands a utives begin shifting personnel. both states in an effort to end the to support civil authorities and the new election in precincts where Post offices serving predomi- counting and nullify mail-in votes Insurrection Act, Trump orders ballots were destroyed. nantly Democratic Zip codes already recorded. Trump tweets: units of the Army’s 1st Infantry That night, soldiers from the are severely understaffed, “Dems have stuffed every mailbox Division to deploy to Florida. 1st Infantry Division, who have slowing delivery. Meanwhile, in FL and MI with ballots from The following day, right-wing been ordered to protect Mar- Republican Zip codes are am- DEAD PEOPLE AND ILLEGALS. social-media posts claim that a-Lago, where Trump is now ply staffed. Someone should burn these fake “BLM and Antifa terrorists” plan staying, open fire on a crowd of Democratic organizations ballots before they steal the elec- to deliver thousands of newly protesters outside the gates. Six start their long-planned mass tion from REAL AMERICANS!!!” “harvested” fake ballots to pre- demonstrators are killed. mailing, sending vote-by-mail By mid-November, thousands cincts around the state. Hundreds On November 25, Trump applications to registered of protesters have poured into the of armed Trump supporters orders more military units to voters. By October, they com- streets to demand that every ballot converge on the election precinct Florida and directs them to plain that applications sent be counted. In response, Trump headquarters in heavily Demo- “Make sure BALLOT FRAUD is two weeks earlier still haven’t calls the demands “an Antifa coup.” cratic counties to “prevent fur- STOPPED -- SOMETIMES YOU been delivered. In response to On November 19, a skirmish ther fraud” and demand that the NEED TO BREAK EGGS TO the outcry, a new organization, breaks out in Tallahassee be- counting stop. Counterprotests MAKE A BEAUTIFUL PERFECT Save Your Vote, announces tween pro-Biden protesters and quickly follow. In Tallahassee, a OMLIT!!!” that Trump is trying to steal THE PRESIDENT SENDS armed white-nationalist groups. poorly trained young National The chairman of the Joint the election. To help voters, Several people are killed, and Guard soldier opens fire on the Chiefs of Staff resigns in protest. DARK-ARTS GROUPS the group says, it is setting IN THE TROOPS multiple buildings are vandalized unruly crowd. Armed members of “My oath is to the Constitution, up 30,000 ballot drop boxes Rosa Brooks, professor at Georgetown Law and cofounder of the or burned. The next day, violence the crowd also start shooting, and not to ,” he writes MESS WITH THE MAIL in battleground states. Save Transition Integrity Project, a bipartisan group working to prevent and looting continue all over Flor- by the end of the day, 35 people are in his resignation letter, “and I Your Vote will pick up and Hal Malchow, former Democratic operative and campaign-mail expert; disruptions to the election: ida. Several Molotov cocktails are dead. The precinct headquarters cannot continue to serve under deliver ballots daily. Some author of the election-theft thriller “42 Million to One”: hurled into the state capitol. has been gutted by fire, and thou- a President who is using our Democratic leaders applaud On November 21, GOP governor sands of uncounted ballots have Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and these efforts. Meanwhile, a Ron DeSantis mobilizes Florida gone up in flames. Marines for partisan ends.” group of purported medical By early morning on November 4, victory, but Biden refuses to National Guard troops to “restore A sober Biden holds a press “FAKE GENERAL,” Trump While Americans were fixated experts, the Pandemic Health there’s no clear winner: Florida, concede—and as the vote count- order,” and on November 22, after conference. “I call on President tweets in response. “I will replace on funding the postal service, Advisory, mails Democrats with Michigan, and North Carolina ing continues over the next days some prodding from the White Trump and Governor DeSantis him with a REAL MAN whose not President Trump was pressuri- a warning that says, “Voting is have not yet been called, though and weeks, Trump’s lead erodes House, he formally requests that to withdraw all National Guard so SKWEAMISH!” ng his appointees to quietly important, but please be care- their initial returns all show in Michigan and Florida, where Trump send military personnel troops and active-duty military On Thanksgiving Day, cit- mount an overhaul anyway— ful. Millions of Americans may Trump with what appears to be postal-service delays have created to help law enforcement sup- from Florida’s cities immediately,” ies around the nation erupt in implementing changes de- contract Covid-19 at polling a strong lead. Trump declares a backlog of uncounted ballots. press what he describes as “an says Biden. He calls on Americans violence. signed to reduce the number places across America.”

OCTOBER 2020 ★ WASHINGTONIAN 36 Election Day arrives. Thirty December 10, 2020: After much women who went for Biden are Trump is counting on it. Chief information that allow people to as historical “snapshots,” trying to states have receipt require- behind-the-scenes lobbying, they second-guessing their votes, and Justice John Roberts concludes vote by mail and in person. A num- understand what’s going on. One ments for mail ballots. In oth- succeed in convincing the United a majority say that if they could that his vote will be critical. He ber of minute errors could accumu- analyst in Chicago notices that over er words, ballots not received Nations secretary-general, the recast their ballots, they would in is inclined to rule in a way that late, going from a small burn to a the summer, a small number of vot- by Election Day are not count- head of the World Health Or- fact go for Trump. ensures stability, as he has done wild blaze—and leaving it unclear ers’ addresses nationwide seemed ed, even if they were post- ganization, the president of the Over the next week: Republican throughout the Trump era but that whether the crisis amounted to a to change—all by one number. It’s marked weeks earlier. Officials European Commission, Emman- Supreme Court whisperers argue also preserves the court’s author- hack or merely an error. as if these voters all decided to pick in these states report a large uel Macron, Angela Merkel, Boris behind the scenes that justices ity with the public. The justices Imagine that it’s October and up and move next door. The ana- volume of ballots that are Johnson, a bunch of other “elite” Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh agree to hear oral arguments: The a Michigan postman notices that lysts are worried, and they notify deemed too late. In the battle- European leaders, plus Justin must show their loyalty to the man 2020 election hinges on the vote Mr. Johnson’s ballot is misad- the Biden campaign. grounds of North Carolina and Trudeau and Andrés Manuel who appointed them. Privately, of the chief justice. dressed to his next-door neighbor. Biden officials don’t know what Nevada, a postmark can qualify López Obrador all to announce Being friendly, the mailman simply to make of the discovery. Somebody a ballot—but 23,000 arrive their recognition of Biden as the puts the ballot in Mr. Johnson’s on the data team utters the word without postmarks or the post- winner. The occasion coincides mailbox instead. In Pennsylvania, “hack” without knowing for sure. marks are illegible. They are with Nobel Prize day. The leaders something similar is happening: That word spreads, as the campaign not counted. read a statement saying Joe Biden An Allegheny County elections starts calling Secretaries of State. Benefiting from more than is “clearly” the winner, and if office is receiving calls from people In one of the meetings, a staffer 150,000 uncounted ballots from Trump should refuse to leave, “we who never received ballots—and a sneaks a phone out of his pocket Democratic Zip codes, Trump will not ratify the election.” few are calling to say they received and texts a reporter. Now the tele- wins the election. Vladimir Putin, who seeded someone else’s. vision networks are asking, “Could Later in November, an em- FOREIGNERS INTERVENE— waves of disinformation again Fast-forward to Election Day: In this election have been hacked?” ployee of Save Your Vote gives this year, stays silent—unable to Milwaukee, there are voters such Republicans seize and start a news stunning testimony: The orga- FOR THE DEMOCRATS believe his good fortune that for- as Ms. Smith, of 4321 Main Street, blitz questioning all mail-in ballots. nization was a false-flag group, eign interference is being pinned who show up to vote with driver’s Late on Election Night, panicked Liz Mair, a Republican operative who has advised , Scott Walker, secretly funded by Trump sup- on Democrats. license in hand. A poll worker Secretaries of States and election and : porters. Employees were direct- December 11, 2020: The Su- checks the registration book and commissioners are frantically strat- ed to make daily drop-box pick- preme Court agrees to hear Trump sees that Smith is listed at 4322 egizing. They’re not equipped to do ups in Republican Zip codes, v. Biden. Main Street—the house next door. any rapid analysis of their voter files, but during the final week before December 14, 2020: The first Unable to let her vote, the worker given the antiquated nature of their the election, in Democratic I don’t think 2020 will be another Supreme Court will take up the poll following the world leaders’ A NEW DISINFORMATION hands her a provisional ballot. technology. They debate whether neighborhoods there was no Bush v. Gore. But if I’m wrong, case. Democratic Party elders, endorsement, conducted by Reporters start to notice a re- the news is true and what it means pickup at all. It soon comes to here’s one way I could see Demo- including some senior advisers to CNN, is released. The results are frain across social media—people for the votes currently being tallied. light that The Pandemic Health crats mismanaging the chaos. Biden and Harris, decide to reach not good for Democrats. Seventy WEAPON: SMALL NUMBERS complaining they were turned away By midnight, President Trump Advisory, whose mailings had November 24, 2020: It’s been out to foreign leaders to procure percent of Americans, including a Raffi Krikorian, managing director at the Emerson Collective and former from their polls because of an error. tweets that the election has been discouraged in-person voting, three weeks since Election Day. the “recognition” of Biden as substantial proportion of self-de- chief technology officer of the Democratic National Committee: Anecdotally, it also appears many rigged and points to videos from was funded by pro-Trump Absentee and mail ballots contin- the duly elected President. They scribed Biden-Harris voters, mail voters haven’t received their CNN as well as tweets from the donors, too. ue to trickle in. Vote tallies change want to try to force a resolution indicate that they view the action ballots and are confused. #ICould- New York Times, which are des- Democrats state that the by the day. Biden is narrowly by showing that the international by foreign leaders as unjustifiable ntVote starts to trend. Soon the perately trying to decipher what’s election has been decided by ahead in multiple swing states, community won’t do business interference in our electoral pro- Trust is the most important ingre- on small details being accurate. hashtag dominates cable news. happening. Before the results are massive fraud and file a lawsuit but litigation is ongoing in several with President Trump past Inau- cess. In particular, polling shows dient in any election—and the most This is especially true of voter reg- Democratic data analysts start even announced, national trust in demanding a new election. courts. Speculation is rife that the guration Day. that suburban, Trump-skeptical delicate. Much of that trust hinges istries, the databases of personal to rip through voter files, as well the election is poisoned.

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September 24: Early voting is un- e-pollbook technology is set to October 15–October 21: With- vote early adding to the crowds. Ohio and Florida refuse. der way in nine states, including be used in 11 additional states. out any technology, elections Common issues such as machine Celebrities rally to the cause Illinois and Virginia. Both states September 27–October 14: officials scramble and manage glitches, paper jams, and staff on social media—Ohioans LeB- experience an immediate prob- E-pollbooks nationwide are sent to acquire more paper ballots. shortages are now compounded. ron James, Martin Sheen, and lem: The electronic pollbooks that back. Voters in the affected areas October 21–November 2: The Lines in communities affected Halle Berry lead a pressure cam- store all voter data in the polling use paper ballots, which quickly reprogrammed e-pollbooks are by the initial programming error paign, causing Ohio to relent. place have labeled every voter run out. To cope, early-voting rolling back into communities. become miles long. Some voters Florida, though, resists a similar as requesting an absentee ballot. hours are cut or eliminated in But an insider has leaked the leave out of exhaustion, others effort. Advocates file suit, and a September 25: Technicians many states, and people are told truck routes, and angry protest- for fear of contracting Covid-19. court finally tells the state it must have discovered a fatal coding to return at a later date. ers attempt to block their arrival. Tens of thousands of voters keep the polls open. error in the e-pollbooks. The Conspiracy theories prolif- Several trucks are forced off the now face the prospect of being November 4–10: Election equipment must be returned to erate. Partisans claim to have road, and devices are damaged. disenfranchised. workers tally votes nationwide the vendor for reprogramming. uncovered a “deep state” plot to November 3: On Election Day, Voting-rights advocates and for a week straight. September 26: Secretaries of steal the election. Technicians because of the equipment chaos, lawyers in DC swing into action, November 10: The final state EARLY VOTING, EARLY CHAOS State hold an emergency meet- working on recalibrating the there are fewer places to vote. urging states to extend voting by certifies its election results, and ing—due to the pandemic, early equipment are receiving death Officials are overwhelmed by the three hours. Nine states rise to the winner of the presidential Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections at Common Cause, the nonpartisan public-interest group: voting is essential, and the same threats and being doxed. turnout, with those who couldn’t the call and extend polling. But election is named.

OCTOBER 2020 ★ WASHINGTONIAN 39