How Voter Suppression Led to Grown Adults Making Escape Plans and Buying Guns
A century and a half after the 15th Amendment was ratified, voters have never had less faith that their vote would be counted
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Earlier this week, I was going through my normal morning routine — drinking iced coffee, looking out the window, settling my mind for the day ahead — when my phone rang with the first work call of the morning. After exchanging pleasantries, the man on the other end dropped a bomb of a question on me: “What’s your escape plan to get out of New York City on election night?”
I knew people had been mentioning this in jest, but nothing in his voice spoke to his question being anything but serious. I didn’t have an answer, but he did: a multiple-point plan that would land him far from the city after early voting. As we discussed what might happen on Election Day, the possibilities went from the unlikely to the unthinkable; then again, with President Donald Trump calling unauthorized poll watchers his “Trump Army” and telling the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by,” the unthinkable is now plausible. I felt a surge of uneasy energy, and it wasn’t just…
