The 2020 presidential election will be like no other. Combine a global pandemic, a sociopath in the White House, a potentially newly confirmed conservative judge on the Supreme Court, and millions of mail-in ballots and you have a perfect shitstorm. But the state of the world shouldn’t keep you from voting — in fact, it should spur you on. The country needs to make a political U-turn if we want to survive — quite literally. Here are eight evil ways the 2020 presidential election will be ridiculous and unprecedented — and we hope No. 9 will be a record turnout to oust the worst president in American history.
Cover Photos: Chip Somodevilla / Staff and Drew Angerer / Staff (Getty Images)
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Unprecedented Election
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Law enforcement may try to intimidate you.
Trump has expressed interest in having law enforcement at the polls to monitor for fraud – which is nowhere near as big a problem as he makes it seem. Voter fraud rates are between 0.0003 percent and 0.0025 percent – in other words, insignificant. But Trump needs voter fraud to be a thing because he might lose the election and will need an excuse to try to stay in office.
"We’re going to have everything," he has said. "We’re going to have sheriffs, and we’re going to have law enforcement, and we’re going to have, hopefully, U.S. attorneys, and we’re going to have everybody, and attorney generals. But it's very hard."
"It's in their playbook that they'll have people intimidated to vote by having ICE agents ... or other law enforcement there to instill fear in people as they show up," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in response. "It's scary but ignore that. It's a suppress-the-vote tactic."
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In-person voting is no longer the norm.
Because of coronavirus, fewer votes will be cast in person. This could throw the country for a loop. A record 76 percent of Americans are eligible to vote by mail this election, and many of them will do so. Because the majority of mail-in votes will be cast by Democrats (who believe in science and recognize COVID-19 as a real threat), some Republicans may very well do everything in their power to fuck with the USPS and the mail-in voting process. We have to also acknowledge that the USPS isn’t a well-oiled machine, so the potential for ballots to get lost or arrive late is real.
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Naked ballots will be thrown out in Pennsylvania.
A “naked ballot” is not as sexy as it sounds. It’s basically a ballot that has not been sealed in its privacy envelope before mailing, and Pennsylvania is throwing them out this year. This is a huge deal because Pennsylvania is one of the heavyweight states that will decide this election (thanks to the completely corrupt electoral college system).
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We won’t know who the winner is immediately.
Because of the record number of mail-in votes being cast this year, we won’t know who the winner of the election is right away. Some states will count ballots even if they aren’t received by Election Day as long as they are postmarked by a certain deadline. Mail-in ballots also take longer to count, meaning it could be weeks before a winner is declared -- and even longer if the results are contested, like the 2000 election.
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We won’t be able to celebrate en masse.
Coronavirus has canceled so many of our favorite things, from music festivals to professional sports games. Now it’s ruining our election night parties, too. Those crowded rooms packed with a presidential candidate’s supporters all watching the election results come in are a thing of the past.
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No matter who wins, there will be conspiracy theories.
If Trump wins, the Democrats will say he stole the election. If Biden wins, Republicans will say the election was rigged. In other words, the only ones who really win the 2020 presidential elections are conspiracy theorists.
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If elected, Biden would be the oldest president ever.
Whether this is a blessing or a curse is up to interpretation. Those tickled pink by Harris as vice-president just might be hoping that Biden will kick the bucket sooner rather than later, ushering in the first female president. Those who are, um, die-hard Biden fans (if they even exist) shouldn’t get too attached to him as president; he’ll be 78 by election day, making him the oldest-ever first-term president (a record previously held by Trump, who was 70 on inauguration day).
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Trump will refuse to go away.
The president has already signaled in his dog-whistle way that there will not be a peaceful transition of power if he loses. What’s more, it’s entirely possible he’ll use his new Supreme Court justice pick to find some sort of legal loophole that’ll let him stay after the “phony” election results are in.
