With just days until the presidential election, lawmakers in both parties are bracing themselves for a tumultuous period after the ballots are counted and many are preparing for the worst, including the potential for civil unrest and even political violence.
It also comes as violence against poll workers has been on the rise and some voters have expressed major distrust and skepticism about the electoral process.
"You see, major social change in a country often corresponds with political instability, political violence, simply because the change is so big. It can unmoor people, and you can end up with behaviors that are just simply not normal," Robert Pape, political science professor and political violence expert at the University of Chicago, told KCBS Radio.
Among their fears, authorities are concerned about violent attempts to overturn the election results, as well as attempts by local or state election officials to stop the results from being finalized.
"The biggest concern really is in the counting on the official tabulations of the votes. And in the swing states, the real dangers are to the election officials, the election workers, and then to the ballot tabulation centers where the ballots are officially counted, where the recounts happen after Election Day," said Pape. "This is not a cyber threat. This is not just a threat on Election Day. This is the heart of what it means to count the votes."
Democrats seem convinced that former President Donald Trump will challenge the election results if he loses. Meantime, Republicans are warning the threat will come from Democrats unable to accept another Trump term.
"It's helpful to think of political violence like a wildfire," Pape said, pointing to survey results of support for political violence in the United States. "Our most recent survey shows that 6% of Americans support the use of force to restore Donald Trump to the presidency and 8% support the use of force to prevent Donald Trump from becoming president."
When you add that together, 14% of the population would favor some sort of violence or do whatever it takes to get their person into office.
"That's that combustible material, and you're already seeing other triggers of that in just the last few months, with assassination attempts against Donald Trump, also the rising escalating threats against election officials," Pape said.
"We're still heading through the heart of that wildfire season in November, December, January," he added. "This is a tinderbox moment."
Some election officials across the U.S. are so worried, they're even planning to wear bulletproof vests to stay safe.
"What you are seeing is, unfortunately, an escalating level of threats against those poll workers, the election officials. They are then, quite reasonably, trying to provide for their own security," Pape said. "It just would be helpful if the governors of states would issue joint public statements now condemning political violence."
"The water to pour on the wildfire is calming political rhetoric, and our governors are the most critical element of our political system right now to issue that calming rhetoric," he added.
Unfortunately, analysts don't see the threat of political violence fading away anytime soon. Pape said the U.S. is currently going through a historic demographic transition that could take a decade or more before we feel things start to settle.
"In 1990, 77% of Americans were non-Hispanic white. Today, that's 61%, and in about 10 years, it's going to be 50% or 49%. This is a social change of the first order, which is producing tremendous political turbulence in our country," said Pape. "Essentially a portion of the country wants to stop or even reverse, deport 10 million people, reverse that transition to a multiracial democracy. Another portion of the country wants to continue or accelerate it. This is the heart of the political problems and dynamics we're having and the heart of why we're going through the era of violent populism."
From a security standpoint, Pape says officials seem to be better off, but only time will really tell.
"So many people have been asking me, do I think another January 6 is possible? And if you look at our surveys here, I think you would have to say that certainly the support would be there," he said.