US braces for election violence: Stores board up, warnings of 'blood'

Americans are braced for civil unrest amid scary predictions of 'blood' during Tuesday's knife's-edge presidential election that appears to hinge on the results in just seven swing states, reviving painful memories of recent assassination bids and chaos after the 2020 vote.

Businesses in Washington, DC were on Monday boarding up their windows as security fencing went up around the White House, US Vice President Harris's residence, and other key buildings in the capital.

Fights have broken out at polling stations and election workers have prepared for gun attacks, amid a flurry of threats to blow up political offices and other sensitive sites ahead of election day.

Washington state has activated some members of the National Guard to be on stand-by, while a Democratic congressman has warned 'there may be blood' resulting from clashes between angry voters.

Police and guardsmen are on standby for election chaos in Portland, Oregon, with its record of Antifa violence, and where Mayor Ted Wheeler warns of 'uncertainty and tension' during polling.    

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The 2024 race has already seen bloodshed, with the July 13 shooting at a Donald Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, which grazed the former president and left one attendee dead and two more wounded.

The contest has also been marred by damning rhetoric between the rival campaigns. A speaker at a Trump rally spoke recently of the 'slaughter' of Democrats, and Trump himself has spoken of 'shooting at' former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney.

Meanwhile, Harris has called Trump a 'threat' to democracy who must be defeated at the ballot box, while her boss the outgoing President Joe Biden has called the MAGA Republican's supporters 'garbage.'   

Meanwhile, the specter of January 6, 2021, when supporters of Trump stormed the US Capitol, seeking to overturn the former president's election loss to Biden - has cast a long shadow over US politics.

This time round, Trump has repeatedly refused to state whether he will accept the election results, and is already alleging fraud and cheating in neck-and-neck swing states such as Pennsylvania, laying the groundwork for what many fear will be more unrest.

Trump supporter Bill Robinson, 65, of North Carolina, says some kind of violence now looks likely.

'It's a horrendous possibility, because it looks like there's no other option than some kind of extreme unrest,' Robinson told USA Today.

Tensions mounted on Monday as Trump and his rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, made their final bid to woo voters, hours before polling stations open on Tuesday in a close-call contest that hinges on a handful of electoral battlegrounds.

The election prediction website 538 slightly favors Trump to win the White House, with a 52 percent chance against 48 percent for Harris — but for many commentators the race is more or less a dead heat.

Tennessee congressman Steve Cohen, a Democrat, Warned on Thursday that 'there may be blood' if Harris beats Trump at the ballot box, saying the Republican's supporters may not accept a defeat.

'I think Kamala's gonna win the popular vote by 5, 6 million votes at least,' he told NewsNation.

'I think she gets the electoral vote, but I think Trump won't stop at anything. It will be in court; it will be in litigation. He'll be telling people, again, to go to the Capitol if you want to have a country and fight like hell.'

Cohen added: 'There may be blood, and there's some concern.'

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Washington D.C. braces for civil unrest by erecting riot fences and boarding up businesses

Those shocking sentiments have been manifest in the nation's capital in recent days, where rings of fencing now envelope the White House, the US Capitol building and the Vice President's residence.

Workers have been hammering fresh-smelling plywood into place at several businesses along Pennsylvania Avenue and Treasury Department complex. Some are reinforcing windows and entrances at street-level in case there's any looting or rioting.

City authorities there have warned of a 'fluid, unpredictable security environment' in the days and possibly weeks after the polls close, as many do not expect a clear winner to be declared on Election Day.

'There is concern around the city,' said Eric J. Jones, a local official told The Washington Post.

But he added that this was mostly a precaution in case of social unrest, saying: 'We're not expecting full-fledged pandemonium like we saw after January 6.'

A survey of 1,003 likely voters, conducted with J.L. Partners, shows that a shocking number of Americans believe the election could quickly become violent and even snowball into a full scale conflict.

More than 25 percent say they believe there will be rioting whether Harris or Trump wins, and 10 percent fear there will be a civil war.

Just over one in five (22 percent) said a Democratic victory would lead to a repeat of January 6, and 21 percent said election sites or Democratic officials would be targeted by direct attacks.

Harris voters are more likely to believe that rioting will take place, while Republicans are split on whether the election will be run fairly.

If Donald Trump wins the Electoral College narrowly, however, Americans think there is a higher chance of 'violence on the streets' in the forms of furious protests.

Pennsylvania, arguably the most important state in the race, has already been at the center of fraud allegations that have made their way to the Supreme Court.

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In the Keystone State, Edward Dieri Jr. was charged with threatening to blow up a Republican office in Montgomery County.

Jeffrey Michael Kelly was arrested in Arizona on October 23 for allegedly shooting a Democratic campaign office three times.

He was also accused of putting signs outside his home with razor blades and a bag of a white powder attached.

A man allegedly attacked a poll worker who asked him twice to remove his MAGA hat in San Antonio, Texas, where political clothing is banned from polling places.

In Oregon and Washington, the FBI and police are still hunting for an arsonist who set three ballot boxes alight.

The governor of Washington state on Friday said he was activating some members of the National Guard to be on stand-by after information and fears about election violence.

Ballot boxes were set on fire earlier in the week in the state, where Harris is easily expected to defeat Trump there, polls show,

Hundreds of ballots were damaged or destroyed by the use of the incendiary device in the drop box in the city of Vancouver, said Gov. Jay Inslee .

'Based upon general and specific information and concerns regarding the potential for violence or other unlawful activity related to the 2024 general election, I want to ensure we are fully prepared to respond,' Inslee said on Friday.