Prudent election advice

No, I’m not going to recommend a candidate to you.

Yes, I am going to offer what I believe is prudent advice for the upcoming election in November. No, it’s not totally original with me, but I do believe it is worth considering, given the facts on the ground. In the last couple of weeks, we have gotten similar advice from some very trusted voices; election advice like none I’ve never gotten in my life. I’d like to share it with you.

The advice is based on a “worst case scenario” in November. So, what scenario might that be? It might be that we don’t know the results on Election Day. In fact, the results might not be known until December as it was in the 2000 election between George W. Bush and Al Gore, when they were still counting “Hanging chads” until a unanimous Supreme Court decision on December 12, six days before the Electoral College was scheduled to meet. So, this is not an unprecedented outcome at all. We’ve seen it before.

But what it might lead to could be unprecedented: rioting and shortages as we saw at the beginning of the pandemic we’re still in, and likely won’t be done within November either; so, this also is not unprecedented.

Why might all this happen?

•A predicted close election. Neither side seems poised to pull off a landslide victory at this point according to widely published polls. This would increase the possibility of a prolonged time before the results are known. Further, it is being reported that both sides are “lawyering up” in case of a close election like we had in 2000 involving recounts and legal maneuvering before we get to the results.

•Mail-in voting on a scale we’ve never seen before, being driven by people’s fears of standing in long voter lines due to the COVID-19 virus. The various Secretaries of State seem ill prepared to handle this kind of volume in a timely way, again, prolonging the election results.

•Pent up anger from the racial unrest that we’ve seen for months seems to have left people with a hair trigger for violence.

•Pent up frustration from the pandemic lockdowns and resulting unemployment also have people’s nerves on edge.

•Soaring gun sales all across the country as people watch daily violence on their TV screens every night, much of it seemingly politically motivated.

So, what should we do? The advice we’ve received, and I’m passing on, is to not let any of this be a surprise to you. Instead be prepared for possible violence and shortages on shelves, as we saw in the early days of the pandemic lockdowns. In light of that, we have begun to add a few more non-perishable necessities to our own pantry shelves. We intend to do this until November, so as to not get “caught short” and to avoid what we saw as hoarding in the beginning of the shutdowns. After all, nobody wants to get caught short on TP or coffee, right?

This is the only advice I can ever remember getting or giving where I hope I’m 100% wrong!

Thanks for reading All About Seniors … see you next week.

Bill Milby is a Director of Visiting Angels® of Central Georgia, a non-medical, living assistance service for seniors. If you have questions or comments about this column you can reach him at william.mercylink@gmail.com or search for us at https://www.facebook.com/VisitingAngelsofCentralGA/

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