The Nation Waits
Counting Mailed Ballots Could Take Days

Cybersecurity Takes Center Stage
Officials on Watch for Disinformation If 2020 Election Results Are Delayed

Potential attackers, including foreign gov'ts, could sow confusion over causes of delays

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, an arm of the Department of Homeland Security, is beefing up its information sharing with state officials about disinformation.

Election Day will put to the test four years of U.S. preparations to block a cyberattack on its voting systems. But officials face an immediate follow-up challenge: Disinformation that could become more damaging the longer it takes to declare a winner.

Federal, state and local governments are on high alert for false narratives aimed at discrediting electoral outcomes if key states take days to tally votes. Election officials say they have spent recent weeks finalizing plans to monitor and combat such campaigns, while social media companies are shoring up policies to limit the spread of such disinformation.

"I don't think that there's any doubt that the far greater threat, to both the security of our elections and our general democracy, is from disinformation," said Glenn Gerstell, former general counsel of the National Security Agency. "[Attackers] don't have to prove that they changed vote totals if they simply say they've changed vote totals."

Social media platforms have made tweaks to catch or limit the spread of false and misleading content. wsj.com

It's Always the Basics - Just People Counting Ballots
When Will We Know the Presidential Election Results? A Guide to Possible Delays
Election officials say the country should be prepared not to know who won the White House on Election Day, citing a surge of mail ballots that some states will need extra time to count.

Will we know who won the presidential election on election night?

There is a good chance that we won't know the winner on election night, say election officials. That would be a big change for many Americans.

Laws in some states prevent officials from beginning to count or process mail ballots before Election Day. In those states, some election officials have lobbied for changes to allow more of those steps, including the opening of outer envelopes, to begin earlier.

Depending on state laws, some states will accept ballots as long as they are postmarked by Election Day, even if received by election offices some days later. That is likely to slow the counting and release of results.

Some local election offices won't likely have enough extra staff or sophisticated technology to speed up the process. Many state and local officials are scrambling to prepare, although they face time and budgets constraints. wsj.com

NRF Statement Regarding Election Day Preparation & Retailers Priority
NRF's Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel Stephanie Martz:
Retailers are prepared to respond to a variety of situations on any given day. With the possibility of unrest around the U.S. election, NRF recently hosted a webinar featuring speakers from the Crisis Prevention Institute and Seyfarth and Shaw LLP on preventing and de-escalating conflict. Additionally, the NRF Foundation recently launched two new training credentials for retailers in response to challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. These educational programs focus on Retail Operations and Customer Conflict Prevention to further ensure retail workers - and the millions of customers they serve - can work and shop more safely and help keep the economy open.
 

Election Day News Coverage
Across the Nation, Retailers & Companies Brace for Unrest

So Far It Was Just Hype
It was a relatively smooth start to Election Day, with some isolated incidents
Relatively few incidents were reported during the morning, with early indications suggesting that voting was going relatively peacefully and for the most part smoothly, apart from some isolated incidents.

There were scattered complaints about people shouting at voters in line and the like, but nothing out of the ordinary from any election year, said Kristen Clarke, who is heading a team of lawyers running the nationwide Election Protection Hotline.

After weeks of intelligence warnings of voter intimidation and potential violence at polling sites, there were few reports of disruptions. But law enforcement officials across the nation were still on high alert after a weekend of caravans were captured blocking roadways and an uptick of threats made online. nytimes.com

ICE Internal Email Warns of DC Protests From Nov. 4-7
Law enforcement braces for unrest after Election Day
Federal law enforcement agencies are bracing for possible unrest over the outcome of the 2020 presidential election following a highly divisive presidential campaign season.

The National Security Integration Center, a key national security and counterterrorism component within Immigration and Customs Enforcement, warned in an internal email late last week about planned protests inside the Capital Beltway, according to text of the email obtained by The Hill. 

"From November 4 - 7, Civil Unrest is planned throughout Downtown Washington DC. LE Intelligence Agencies have monitored several messages on protesters' social media sites stating, 'If you want to throw down come to Washington DC on November 4th,'" reads one of the bullets in the email.

In a sign authorities are preparing for the worst, a "non-scalable" fence has been erected around the White House ahead of Election Day to create a buffer should protests turn violent. And businesses in D.C. and across various U.S. cities are boarding up their windows to help protect storefronts from the risk of looters and vandalism. 

No matter the result, the chances of violence appear to be rising amid clashes between supporters of the two presidential candidates. thehill.com

The Entire Nation 'Bracing For an Enormous Hurricane'
Boarded-up stores across L.A. reflect an anxious, unprecedented election day

Rodeo Drive: Gregg Donovan, 61, former Ambassador of Beverly Hills, stands on a closed and boarded-up Rodeo Drive the day before election day. "I never thought I would see this," he said about businesses being closed along the famous street.

The sound of that tension could be heard from Rodeo Drive to Santa Ana in the rattle of compressors and the thwack-thwack of nail guns. Thick plywood was going up over shop windows and doors, just as it was in San Francisco and San Diego, Philadelphia, Washington, Miami and Dallas, as if the entire nation were bracing for a single enormous hurricane.

Los Angeles police and the L.A. County Sheriff's Department are preparing for the possibility of unrest and plan to have thousands of officers ready to be mobilized at a moment's notice.

LAPD Chief Michel Moore said nearly every uniformed officer will work a 12-hour shift on election day and be a visible presence across the city all week. He pledged immediate action to restore order if a disturbance unfolds. latimes.com

NYC Mayor Says: We're Prepared for "Prolonged Protests"
WWD: NYC Stores Board Up and Take Precautions Before Election

Macy's & Bloomingdale's Flagships & Others Boarded Up in New York City

Stores in New York City have been boarded up and are taking extra precautions in preparation for potential unrest in the days surrounding Tuesday's presidential election.

Tiffany, Louis Vuitton, Dior, and Moncler have been boarded up in SoHo, and one source said many stores in the neighborhood are in the process of doing so. Aerie and American Eagle on Lexington Avenue and 56th Street also had plywood facades on Saturday. Both were temporarily closed on Sunday. Guess, at 575 Fifth Avenue, is also boarded up, but open for business, as was its SoHo store at 537 Broadway, which has gates.

Nordstrom's main store has frosted panes hiding the merchandise. The Plaza Hotel has partial boarding, as does Bergdorf Goodman. On Fifth Avenue, the NBA store, Vans, Best Buy, BCBG, Five Below, Sunglass Hut are all boarded up. The Timberland stores are boarded up in Herald Square and on Fifth Avenue, as is the Empire State Building.

  Saks Adds Security Measures - Continue Reading NYC Boards Up

5 States Have National Guard Ready
National Guard Readies for Election Day Deployment
States are already on alert for violence. On Monday, Gov. Charlie Baker of Massachusetts ordered 1,000 members of the National Guard to be on standby in case of turmoil following Tuesday's election.

And in Oregon, Gov. Kate Brown declared a state of emergency for the Portland area, citing concern for potential violence surrounding the election. Under the plans, the Oregon State Police and the Multnomah County Sheriff will take over management of public safety in the city, and Governor Brown said she has directed the National Guard to have members trained in crowd control to be on standby.

New Jersey and Wisconsin have both called up hundreds of citizen soldiers and airmen to work the elections. In both states, the troops helping out are wearing civilian clothes so that voters will not be alarmed by seeing camouflage uniforms at the polls.

Some governors have put troops on standby this week for the election, including Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, who The San Antonio Express-News reported had dispatched 1,000 Guard troops to major cities in anticipation of violence. nytimes.com

Suspicious robocall campaign warning people to 'stay home'
spooks voters nationwide
An unidentified robocaller has placed an estimated 10 million calls in the past several weeks warning people to "stay safe and stay home," spooking some Americans who said they saw it as an attempt to scare them away from the polls on Election Day. seattletimes.com

Tensions in the Workplace Have Risen - You Need to Be Aware
Millennials Are Very Concerned About Impact on Reviews

How to Support Employees After the Election
Employees are dreading going to work on Nov. 4

In a survey by Reflective of 1,000 U.S. employees - conducted earlier this year - 54 percent of participants said that if their candidate loses this election, it will impact their performance at work. Another 29 percent felt that office politics would make it difficult to go to work the day after the election. Tensions in the workplace have risen since then.

"Even more concerning long term, most Millennial [57 percent] are somewhat or very concerned that disagreeing with the political views of their bosses or co-workers could negatively bias their performance review," said Reflektive's Chief Human Resource Officer Rachel Ernst.

This election season, more than any other, HR professionals must focus on how to support employees and guide conversations to prevent explosive interactions and de-escalate disputes.

Preparing employees for post-election workplace interactions started months ago for some companies. A recent article in the Harvard Business Review recommends three strategies for avoiding heated debates. Curiosity, boundaries and humility keep controversial conversations from boiling over. shrm.org

The Mall of America open during regular business hours with extra safety measures in place

Downtown Dallas businesses prepping for potential Election Day unrest

Bronx business owners looted during George Floyd protests in June prepare for Election Day chaos

DC protesters organized via Zoom for months, thousands expected outside White House

Violence & Protests

At least 25 Americans have been killed during protests & political unrest in 2020
At least 11 Americans have been killed while participating in political demonstrations this year and another 14 have died in other incidents linked to political unrest, according to new data on fatalities and violence at American protests from a database created by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project (ACLED), a non-profit, working in collaboration with a group of researchers at Princeton.

Nine of the people killed during protests were demonstrators taking part in Black Lives Matter protests. Two were conservatives killed after pro-Trump "patriot rallies". All but one were killed by fellow citizens.

The new data highlights the danger of the presence of guns during politically charged protests, and raises concerns about continued violence during and after election day, when many Americans anticipate delays, confusion and protests before the winner of the presidential race is confirmed. theguardian.com

Kyle Rittenhouse, charged with killing 2 Kenosha protesters, has bond set at $2M
Wisconsin court set a $2 million bond for Kyle Rittenhouse, an Illinois teenager accused of killing two protesters and wounding a third at demonstrations in Kenosha after the police shooting of Jacob Blake. The 17-year-old was arrested at his home in Antioch, Illinois, a day after the Aug. 25 shootings. Two men, Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, were fatally shot and a third man, Gaige Grosskreutz, was injured.

Rittenhouse appeared in a Kenosha County court Monday via video after he was extradited to Wisconsin on Friday. He faces two felony homicide charges in addition to charges of felony attempted homicide, possession of a dangerous weapon while under the age of 18, and reckless endangerment, court records show. nbcnews.com

Minneapolis & St. Paul: Increase in carjackings and robberies roils Twin Cities
A troubling surge of violent crimes that law enforcement largely attributes to small groups of marauding teens. In many cases, juveniles use the stolen vehicles to commit other strong-arm robberies.

"It's open season out there," said the woman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because at least one suspect remains at large. "We're not safe in this city."

Over the past five weeks, police have logged more than 63 carjackings in the city. MPD didn't specifically track this type of crime until Sept. 22 because they were so infrequent.

The spree comes amid a nearly unprecedented spike in violent crime, particularly shootings, since the May 25 killing of George Floyd.

Fed up, citizens are flooding social media to warn their neighbors, encouraging one another to arm themselves or, at the very least, to buy security cameras and small GPS trackers for their keys. startribune.com

Portland: Unlawful assembly declared during election eve protest

LAPD to begin recording, storing helicopter footage on Election Day
 

Chino, CA: 3 arrested after CHP investigators seize $800,000 in stolen merch