Raising the alert status from Yellow to Orange would cost about $1 Billion a day - police overtime etc. Figure is not exact, maybe 500 million to 1.5 B.
In many states polls are kept open when weaher is bad, etc.
Being able to push back a given states election 3 days or one week could be useful.
While I tend to agree with Senator Fienstein's sentiments, it is just too easy for someone to smash some bottles of insecticide in three or four places in a city, and cause a "shelter in place" order to go out. Many insecticides are very similar to never gases, they are actually never gasses for insects. If someone picked a city in a swing state, like Ohio, Michighan, Illinois, it could easily tilt the election since the cities vote one way and the suburbs and countryside the opposite. This is a level of activity just a little more that a high school vandalism or prank - no real nevere gas, just retail insectiside. Throw in some minor explosions at public facilities, and maybe some actual
chemicals weapons near places they would be sensed and analayzed early, an a very small group could create a vastly disprotionate affect.
If the law is passes in advance, and has small delays and is not open ended, I think it would be accepted.
The reaction to an indefinate delay of elections or hte possiblity of same would be very strong. |
