I guess we’ll see. The examples you point to don’t seem numerous enough to potentially affect turnout though. Like I said, they’re cowards so they don’t attack large groups such as people waiting to vote.
On average, the US has I think 1.5 mass shootings per day. Schools, places of worship, supermarkets, parades, and even a children’s hospital got threatened. Especially at what will be a political flashpoint in this country, there’s no reason to believe that polling places would magically be immune. If anything, the chances of a polling place getting attacked is significantly higher than normal.
And those large groups of people waiting to vote…you know what they don’t have? Guns. A large group of unarmed people all gathered in one place to vote makes for a perfect target for someone with a poiltical chip on their shoulder, especially if they’re looking for targets that are unable to fight back. A gang-style drive-by could easily take out a dozen or so people, and even a “non-lethal” drive-by (my example above; a couple of smoke bombs and sound effects) would be enough to at the very least disrupt the election and at worst cause injury or death in the hysteria and confusion.
And it doesn’t have to be more than one or two. The margin in most swing states hovered around 10,000 votes per state. Drop a smoke bomb or two in the middle of a couple of minority districts and that alone could be enough to swing an election while the polling place is shut down for hours and people throughout the area who would have otherwise voted decide to stay home out of fear.
If anything, the chances of a polling place getting attacked is significantly higher than normal.
I’m not really interested in arguing about hypotheticals, suffice to say that direct assaults on voters during an Election Day is far from common and I hope it says that way.
On average, the US has I think 1.5 mass shootings per day. Schools, places of worship, supermarkets, parades, and even a children’s hospital got threatened. Especially at what will be a political flashpoint in this country, there’s no reason to believe that polling places would magically be immune. If anything, the chances of a polling place getting attacked is significantly higher than normal.
And those large groups of people waiting to vote…you know what they don’t have? Guns. A large group of unarmed people all gathered in one place to vote makes for a perfect target for someone with a poiltical chip on their shoulder, especially if they’re looking for targets that are unable to fight back. A gang-style drive-by could easily take out a dozen or so people, and even a “non-lethal” drive-by (my example above; a couple of smoke bombs and sound effects) would be enough to at the very least disrupt the election and at worst cause injury or death in the hysteria and confusion.
And it doesn’t have to be more than one or two. The margin in most swing states hovered around 10,000 votes per state. Drop a smoke bomb or two in the middle of a couple of minority districts and that alone could be enough to swing an election while the polling place is shut down for hours and people throughout the area who would have otherwise voted decide to stay home out of fear.
I’m not really interested in arguing about hypotheticals, suffice to say that direct assaults on voters during an Election Day is far from common and I hope it says that way.