Businesses Around the Country Are Boarding Up Ahead of Election Season

A pedestrian passes a boarded up entrance at the Saks Fifth Avenue store, Friday, Oct. 30, 2020.AP Photo/Chris Pizzello

For indispensable reporting on the coronavirus crisis, the election, and more, subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter.Businesses in New York; Washington, DC; Los Angeles; San Francisco; and other cities across the country are boarding up in anticipation of election-season unrest. Because a healthy democracy is one that prepares for an election as if it were a gathering tropical cyclone. 

Washington DC is boarding up shopfronts, preparing for election destruction. This is the 3rd time they’ve done this since June. pic.twitter.com/eQc8lhe30L
— David Lipson (@davidlipson) October 27, 2020

Bay Area cities and restaurants are boarding up — bracing for potential election-night unrest. Police in Oakland and San Francisco plan to boost staffing on election night. https://t.co/36gwbKrMtg pic.twitter.com/cOLsylAX2u
— San Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle) October 31, 2020

Businesses are boarding up in #BeverlyHills in anticipation of the election, k-rails are located throughout the city, the police department will be on tactical alert for a week, and #Rodeodrive will be completely closed for 48 hours. We’ll have all the details next @ABC7 pic.twitter.com/Ty4XP33Pjt
— Josh Haskell (@abc7JoshHaskell) October 29, 2020

USA Today interviewed Shain Jenkins, the manager of a lumber and hardware store in Seattle, who told them that unfortunately “business is definitely up.”  
America on the eve of a national election is terrified of itself and doing a brisk business in very little but fortifying itself in plywood.