Making a choice: Voters talk of decision and of tensions

Voters’ determination to be counted was evident from the moment the first polls opened in the darkness of midnight in northern New Hampshire, and dawn elsewhere. Long lines and passionate opinions confirmed the stakes, as did the palpable tension as the night wore on and the electoral map showed an excruciatingly tight race in several key states.

“I can’t deal with this,” Clinton voter Joshua Streeter, 42, said as he watched returns at a bar in St. Petersburg, Florida, clutching a Jack and Coke.

Throughout the day, voters waited outside churches and synagogues, community centres and schools, often with snacks and children in tow.

In Los Angeles, they voted alongside the lap lanes of the Echo Park Pool and in Chicago, they cast ballots in a bowling alley over the racket of downed pins.

They voted at a county fairgrounds in Moscow, Idaho, a strip mall recently swamped by 10-foot floodwaters in Denham Springs, Louisiana, a Buddhist temple in Long Beach, California, and on the run in Colorado, Oregon and elsewhere where special drop boxes accepted ballots from joggers and motorists.

Some celebrated their votes, confident of the outcome.

“We’re the United States of America. We can overcome anything,” said Melanie Draheim of Houston, after casting her vote for Trump.

Others described the election as an albatross weighing on them.

“I’ve been really stressed out about this election,” said Belinda Hedrick, 62, of Mission, Kansas, who came straight from a spin class, and was still sweating, when she cast a vote for Clinton. “It’s the first time I’ve ever woke up at night worrying about stuff.”

In Indianapolis, biologist Scott Salmon, 32, said he, too, woke up anxious, before biking to the polls.

“We have a bottle of champagne if Hillary wins and a bottle of rum if Trump wins — that kind of anxious,” he said.

Many voting Tuesday hewed to their established politics. But some said the accusations of the campaign had pushed them across party lines.

Lisa Moore, a Republican from Glen Rock, New Jersey, said she voted for Clinton. “I think the Republican party has gone way right of the majority of at least the residents of this section of the country,” said Moore, an exercise instructor.

“As a woman, in good conscience, and as the mother of a daughter, I can’t vote for somebody who’s so morally reprehensible” as Trump,” she said.

Meanwhile, Democrat Jim Eul, 61, a retired plumbing inspector for the city of Chicago, said his intense dislike for Clinton had persuaded him to vote for Trump. He said he couldn’t bear sitting out the election, but expressed disappointment in the choices. “You’ve got two big political organizations and these are the only two they can come up with?”

Regardless of party, voters agreed the stakes of the election were tremendous.

In Anchorage, Alaska, Jeanette O’Brien, 72, said she voted for Trump because he is capable of rebuilding schools and cities that she blames President Barack Obama for letting decay. But whoever wins, she expects unrest, even a possible civil war.

“Millions of Americans will stand up to take the country back if they have to,” she said.

A fellow Alaskan, Warren Urda, explained his vote for Clinton was also about long-term consequences. “I believe that person will select the next four Supreme Court justices and that will affect us for the next 50 years, not just for the next four years,” said Urda, a retired dentist.

Many voters expressed worries that merely counting the votes will not heal the country’s divide.

On Tuesday, Elizabeth Gil, a law student in Miami Lakes, Florida, would not say who she voted for, but expressed hope for what comes next.

“I think people want to move forward,” said Gil, who avoided early voting because she treasures the experience of going to the polls on Election Day. “There’s too much division. If we’re going to work with one another, to hear each other’s different points of views, that is how we can move forward together as a country.”

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Associated Press writers Don Babwin in Chicago, Bill Draper in Mission, Kansas, Dan Joling in Anchorage, Alaska, Tamara Lush in St. Petersburg, Florida, Tom Murphy in Indianapolis, Jay Reeves in Bessemer, Alabama, Tim Reynolds in Miami Lakes, Florida, and Errin Haynes Whack in Philadelphia, Amy Forliti in Roseville, Minnesota, and Rodrique Ngowi in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire contributed to this story.

Adam Geller, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

Making a choice: Voters talk of decision and of tensions

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