Xinhua —With less than two weeks before Election Day, a new poll showed a disturbing result that more than a quarter of Americans believe civil war might break out after a new president is chosen, according to a recent report by British newspaper The Times.
The report cited a survey by YouGov conducted with 1,266 registered U.S. voters that showed 27 percent of them said violence is very or somewhat likely to erupt after the Nov. 5 presidential election. The Oct. 18-21 poll covered voters of both the Democratic and Republican parties.
Twelve percent of respondents predicted that someone they knew might take up arms if they thought GOP candidate Donald Trump lost the election because of fraud. Five percent said their acquaintances would do the same if they believed Democratic candidate Kamala Harris was cheated.
The poll found that as many as 84 percent of those surveyed said the United States was more divided than a decade ago, whereas only 5 percent said it was less divided.
Americans’ fear of violence and division was reflected in the crucial battleground state of Michigan, Xinhua reporters found during a recent trip there.
There is just a lot of “confusion” coming to mind “when I see the national news,” said Kayla, a young African American woman working in a life insurance company in Detroit who only gave her first name. Trump nearly getting assassinated twice “scares me,” She added.
Asked if he feared a civil war could break out after the election — coincidentally the exact question in the above poll — James Tower, a veteran and retiree in Detroit, told Xinhua that the chances are so big that he despairingly anticipates the eruption of violence.
“I’m anticipating it,” he said, adding that the insurrection on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, 2021 made him “fully expect” a similar riot to happen again this time around. Tower cast his ballot for Harris through in-person early voting.