Best-Case Scenario: November 6, 2024

There has been a lot of scenario planning for the U.S. elections. Almost all that I have heard about is planning for the worst. What if people storm state capitals or attack poll workers or county clerks? What if people don’t like the results and take to the streets or worse? We should plan for those. But we also need to plan for the best-case scenario, and we hear a lot less about that. There’s still time to create this future for ourselves.

Friends of mine talk about learning to ride a motorcycle. When you are learning to do hairpin turns while winding down mountain roads, you are taught to not look at the rock you are trying not to hit but to turn your head to the road ahead that you want to ride on. We need to do that now. We need to stop looking exclusively at the rock and instead look to the road we want to ride on.

Start with imagination. The day of the election — Nov. 5 — we want record numbers of people to turn out and participate in democracy. We want them to have fun doing so. Maybe they participate in Joy to the Polls or laugh as they walk by voting lines because they cast their vote by mail. We want people to go to bed that night knowing that their vote is getting counted along with everyone else’s. Whether they stay up to watch returns or wake up the next morning, on Wednesday, Nov. 6, we want them to celebrate or commiserate with friends and loved ones.

The question is: What can we do now to make this the scenario on Nov. 6?

Leaders from all walks need to emphasize that we have the safest election system in the world. And while people may try to mess with it, they invariably get caught. This is why as a nation we have very low confirmed cases of fraud.

Leaders from all walks need to call out disinformation when it gains traction; emphasize facts; and as James Coan from More Like Us counsels, “Add more trust that can bring us together … subtract polarizing rhetoric and behavior, especially the underlying factors worsening them.”

Leaders from all walks need to hold themselves accountable for giving rise to anti-violence rhetoric. This is known as “priming.” We can prime people for the norms we want them to adhere to. As Lilliana Mason from SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University notes: “Our studies also suggest that the most important factor that diminishes Americans’ support for political violence is responsible leadership from party leaders: a decrease in their violent rhetoric and a rise in anti-violence messaging.”

The media needs to take its ethical responsibilities seriously andmove away from glamorizing and overhyping threats of political violence in ways that distort what is really happening. If one drop ballot box gets placed in the wrong neighborhood, it does not deserve more coverage than 67 counties in Pennsylvania holding elections with no major issues on Election Day. Journalists can find a way to make the “no hitches” angle clickable.

On Nov. 6, if we haven’t all taken active steps to create a day after the election that is filled with emotions — from euphoria to despair — but no political violence, then we have missed a big opportunity to create a future we want. Today is a good day to start working on that future.