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Voters wait in line at a polling place at a community center in Mobile, Alabama, USA, on November 3, 2020. EPA-EFE / DAN ANDERSON
Voting began quietly in the US, but there are concerns about possible “fireworks” later on. The polls opened at 6 a.m. M. And at 7 a. M., Eastern Standard Time, Tuesday, November 3. With about 100 million votes already cast, another 50 million Americans are expected to vote before the last polls, in Alaska and Hawaii, which close at 8 a.m. M. African time.
The United States does not have a deadline for campaigning or political publicity for the case, and both Joe Biden and Donald Trump were still traveling across the country addressing voters on Election Day.
Democratic candidate Joe Biden started his day on a solemn note, going to church in Wilmington, Delaware, before stopping at the cemetery where his son, daughter and first wife are buried. He then went to Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he was born, to speak with his followers before heading to Philadelphia.
Today, vote for a new day in America. pic.twitter.com/WzarlQ8JDI
– Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) November 3, 2020
Donald Trump began his day with an interview with Fox TV where he went from being confident: “I think we will have victory,” to criticizing the channel for – according to him – giving more airtime and interviews to Democrats than to Republicans.
Later, while visiting a gathering of Republican campaign workers in Arlington, Virginia, Trump was asked if he had prepared a concession speech.
“No, I’m not thinking of a concession speech or an acceptance speech yet,” Trump said. “Winning is easy, losing is never easy, not for me it is not.”
By voting day, the polls still had Biden ahead of Trump, but some experts say that polls often do not contain enough checks and balances to account for the human condition and therefore must be handled with watch out. One such expert is Rusty Brooks, director of the International Center for Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia.
Brooks says: “I never underestimate Donald Trump or his followers. Just look at the lessons of Al Gore and Hillary Clinton when it comes to people who should have won but didn’t. If Biden is in the lead, I attribute that to early voting and the likelihood that the polls overrepresent the people who are likely to tell the truth. “
He adds that possibly the best example of why surveys should be taken with a pinch of salt is that:
“2016 showed that polling companies were underrepresented by Trump voters primarily because their sampling methods did not accurately count these voters as the true extent of their support. This year, polling companies say they have improved their voting methods to better account for Trump’s support, but we won’t know if these changes are better until we see the results and see if the polls performed better at counting Trump’s votes. “.
Overall, the vote got off to a peaceful start. However, many Americans had personal safety concerns surrounding in-person voting at the polls and were also concerned about possible violent protests after the results. A voter in Washington said The Washington Post that the city was “a political tinderbox.”
You may not be wrong, given that the White House erected an “impassable” high fence around its perimeter on Monday and several civic protests were planned for Tuesday, some of them a block from the White House.
Brooks, however, said that some of the “fears” that the Trump administration appears to be experiencing are primarily to show as a way to gain more support.
“I think the White House or Trump are creating a false narrative to back up their scaremongering to their followers. You (Trump) have to create the images you are selling and convince people that anarchy is the result of a Biden victory.
“My biggest fear is not that rioters will climb the walls of the White House (unless Trump refuses to leave), but that his most ardent supporters will cause trouble if Trump loses because the election is close and Trump can convince them that was manipulated. But I also think there is the potential for violence from people on the other side if they see any Trump win as a stolen election. ”
A retired CNN journalist said Daily maverick, “In the old days, party officials would walk through their neighborhoods, looking for people who hadn’t voted and saying, ‘Come with me to the polling place and I’ll give you five dollars.’ [area] captains and received campaign money, called ‘cash’ for the express purpose of ‘encouraging’ people to vote. “
This translates into the now illegal practice of “vote buying”, and appears to have been replaced by what Brooks calls creating a false narrative to “buy” support.
Vote counts are expected to start coming in between 10 p.m. And midnight Eastern Standard Time Tuesday (5-7 AM on Wednesday South African Time). The count will continue overnight and absentee or mail ballots will still be counted for possibly another three or four days. Ballots that arrive by mail must be postmarked by November 3, but do not need to arrive the same day. DM
An Wentzel is Night Editor, Specialist Reporter for the Daily Maverick. She went to the United States to visit her family when the pandemic struck and is currently abandoned in the land of the ‘free’.
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