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 Donald Trump,” 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 Rand Paul, Scott Walker, secretly funded by Trump sup- on Democrats. license in hand. A poll worker Secretaries of States and election and Rick Perry: porters.