2 weeks Ago
The election violence started out West, where police say someone set fire to drop boxes in Oregon and Washington state on Monday, destroying hundreds of ballots . By Wednesday, the Richland County election office sought police guidance on how to handle a provocateur who was harassing voters in the voters-only section of an early voting precinct and livestreaming their responses. In Orangeburg County, an argument turned into a scuffle between poll workers and a man wearing a hat with a political message.
The chance that all this will escalate on Election Day is greater than zero, perhaps significantly greater, although we can pray that it doesn’t spiral beyond attacking ballots and shoving and punching to more serious attacks on the people who cast or count the votes. SC election security: Panic buttons and quiet rooms. Hidden features protecting poll workers for 2024 This is not news: Sadly, intimidation, disruption and even violence have become an expected part of American elections.
The Post and Courier’s Caitlin Byrd reports that panic buttons have been installed in all 104 of Charleston County’s polling places. Other counties that can afford it have fortified their own polling places to protect against attacks. Clearly, we are a nation on edge, distrustful of and even angry toward those whose politics differ from our own, worried for the future of our democratic republic and for our own safety.
A poll released Monday showed that four in 10 U.S. voters are very concerned about election-related violence .
Editorial: Here's who The Post and Courier is endorsing for 2024 election So let’s start with this point: Chances are practically zero that there will be any serious Election Day violence in South Carolina, or that if there is, you will be present in the particular polling place where it occurs when it occurs; if you are injured or killed on Tuesday, it almost certainly will be in a highway collision . So if you haven’t already voted, do so with confidence that it will be safe and that your vote will be counted. Scoppe: You could be surprised on Election Day, but not by either of these possibilities Now this point: Every one of us can play a role in reducing the chance of violence on Election Day, and after Election Day.
If we want to call ourselves patriotic citizens, we must. The kill-people kind of violence is most likely to come from anarchists or others unhinged from reality, and there’s little any of us can do to stop that. Scoppe: 'We are being manipulated by people who don't have our best interests at heart' But in such a combustible political climate, it’s all too easy for people to let their emotions overtake reason and do things they never would have imagined.
So be patient and kind, as our faith tells us to be. Don’t offend, and don’t allow yourself to be offended. Don’t provoke people waiting in line to vote, or anywhere: Don’t wear provocative shirts or hats or say provocative things.
Don’t allow yourself to be provoked. Editorial: Polling places are the wrong places for provocative messages — or provocation One day, perhaps, we can return to being our normal selves, even if our normal selves are obnoxious. Election Day is not that day.
Election Day is the time to exchange pleasantries with our neighbors, even if we feel sure they’re voting in what we consider the wrong way, to cast our votes, and to go in peace. But before you go, thank a poll worker. Thank several poll workers.
These are our neighbors, and they are people who believe so deeply in our great nation that they are willing to give up their day, for a pittance of pay, at potential danger to themselves, to ensure that the very foundation of our democratic republic — our right to vote — is protected. Scoppe: After an awful race that isn't over yet, what happens next is up to each of us After we vote, while we wait for election results and once we finally have them (and don’t expect to know who won the presidential race for days, at best), we need to remember that the election results, no matter which way they go, or seem to go, are not the end of the world. We need to practice calm, and model calm — within our families, in our churches and workplaces, when we’re around strangers.
And on social media; especially on social media, since that’s where we’re least likely to act like the lovely people we all are. Click here for more opinion content from The Post and Courier..
