'Vote and get home,' anxious voters say on Election Day
Election 2020 Anxious Voters
Supporters listen as Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a rally at Belle Isle Casino in Detroit, Mich., Saturday, Oct. 31, 2020. As Election Day closes in, Americans are exhausted from constant crises, on edge because of volatile political divisions and anxious about what will happen next.(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Charles Oppermann holds his vote by mail ballot for Joe Biden outside the drop-off location at the Dunedin Public Library Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020, in Dunedin, Fla. Oppermann, 55, is most anxious that the results of the election will turn into a prolonged fight. As Election Day closes in, Americans are exhausted from constant crises, on edge because of volatile political divisions and anxious about what will happen next.(AP Photo/Steve Nesius)
A person casts their vote in the glow of a voting machine during early voting at the Dunwoody Library after Hurricane Zeta knocked out power in the surrounding areas on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020, in Dunwoody, Ga. As Election Day closes in, Americans are exhausted from constant crises, on edge because of volatile political divisions and anxious about what will happen next.(AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
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APTOPIX Election 2020 Michigan Voting
Voters line up before polls open on Election Day at a precinct in Warren, Mich., Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
An official drive-up ballot box is seen outside the public library in Warren, Mich., Wed, Oct. 28, 2020. Here in Macomb County and across the country, some say the stress has made them physically ill. Others have obsessively tracked polls to sooth their nerves, or bought guns, or researched moving abroad, or retreated to a cabin in the woods. Tension has ratcheted up, sometimes within families, as each side believes the other is threatening to usher in the end of America as we know it. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
APTOPIX Election 2020 Anxious Voters
Diane Spiteri clutches her absentee ballot before dropping it off at the city clerk's office in Warren, Mich., Wed, Oct. 28, 2020. "I just can't wait until the whole thing is over. And I think it's long from over, even after Tuesday. There's just so much anxiety," said Spiteri, who cast her ballot last week for Biden. As the traditional Election Day closes in, Americans are exhausted from constant crises, on edge because of volatile political divisions and anxious about what will happen next. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
A mask decorated with the Detroit area code belonging to Clare Allenson, civic engagement director for Michigan League of Conservation Voters which works on voter outreach and resources as well as recruitment of poll workers for the upcoming election, sits on her desk as she works from home in Detroit, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Trump supporters Terry, left, and Sherry Frandle talk about at their concerns of what a Biden presidency could bring, in their home in Saint Clair Shores, Mich., Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2020. In Macomb County, Terry hung Trump banners outside his house and noticed that neighbors who used to stop to chat crossed to the other side of the street, not even offering a "hello." Some drivers wave, some flip the bird. He doesn't blame Trump for the discord, he blames Democrats and the media for failing to give Trump a fair shake, he said. He plans to vote in person on Election Day. "I just don't trust anything anymore," he said, except for what he hears directly from Trump. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Theresa McGarity, whose mother, Carolyn Wilson, died of COVID-19, looks out over lights placed on pairs of shoes representing residents in Macomb County who died from the pandemic during an art installation vigil in Mount Clemens, Mich., Friday, Oct. 30, 2020. "I guess because it hit home, it's not political anymore. It's a plain, simple right and wrong," said McGarity, who already cast a ballot for Biden. "When someone in leadership is aware of something that could flip your whole world upside down and they don't inform you. And you have the right to vote to change that, shame on you if you don't." (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Artist Edward Stross stands next the mural he painted to honor the 13 nuns who died at a local convent from COVID-19, at his studio in Roseville, Mich., Saturday, Oct. 31, 2020. As the coronavirus crisis surges to more than nine million infections and 230,000 dead, the election for many is a referendum on how Trump has handled the pandemic. In the final days of the campaign, he has continued to downplay the toll it has taken, and many of his supporters say they find no fault in his response. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Volunteers Latrina Lawrence, left, and Breya Smith, roast marshmallows for motorists pulling through a drive-thru socially distanced Halloween celebration in the parking lot of The Winner's Circle Church in Mount Clemens, Mich., Saturday, Oct. 31, 2020. According to pastor Leon McDonald III, the event was intended to bring a sense of normalcy to its congregation amid coronavirus lockdowns and a sense of anxiety leading up to the election. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Theresa McGarity, left, embraces her granddaughter, Blake, 8, while remembering her mother, Carolyn Wilson, during an art installation vigil with shoes representing residents in Macomb County who died from COVID-19 in Mount Clemens, Mich., Friday, Oct. 30, 2020. Wilson, who died in April at 76 years old, was a God-fearing woman and had been teaching Blake how to crochet. On Friday night, as McGarity brought Blake to the art installation, a raucous pro-Trump demonstration down the street could be heard as they read the age and hometown of each of their dead. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
A mural of the Virgin Mary, painted on the side of a building, is reflected in a poster which reads "Stand for the Flag, Kneel for the Cross," outside a church in Roseville, Mich., Saturday, Oct. 31, 2020. As the traditional Election Day closes in, Americans are exhausted from constant crises, on edge because of volatile political divisions and anxious about what will happen next. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Shahin Nazmul Hassan, founder of the Bangladeshi American Democratic Caucus in Michigan, stands for the National Anthem while conducting a virtual rally with voters and local politicians from his home in Sterling Heights, Mich., Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020. "Thirty years ago, when I came to this country, it was so beautiful, so warm and welcoming, so accepting. But that is not the culture anymore," he said. "What we've seen in the past four years is division, putting people down. There's no decency and respect." (AP Photo/David Goldman)
An Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran, who did not give his name, stands on a highway overpass with signs encouraging motorists to vote in Hamtramck, Mich., Wed, Oct. 28, 2020. Early voting numbers, nearly 90 million by Saturday morning, suggest 2020 will shatter voter turn-out records. Trump has alleged without evidence that wide-spread absentee voting will lead to fraud. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Trump supporters Carol Reed, dressed as the Statue of Liberty, right, and Matthew Woods, dressed as a Continental Army soldier, cheer at an intersection during a rally in Mount Clemens, Mich., Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020. About 7 in 10 voters say they are anxious about the election, according to an AP-NORC poll last month. Only a third are excited. Biden supporters were more likely than Trump voters to be nervous, 72% to 61%. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Meghan Iliesiu sits with her sons, Gabriel, 6, right, and Alexander, 4, at their home in Huntington Woods, Mich., Friday, Oct. 30, 2020. Iliesiu, a 32-year-old stay-at-home mother in Oakland County, voted third-party in 2016. She never thought Trump would win. Now she believes he's made the country more hateful and divided. She decided long ago to vote for any Democrat who ran against him. Now the wait is excruciating, Iliesiu said. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Trump supporter Terry Frandle checks his mailbox in his front yard decorated for Halloween and a Trump reelection campaign in Saint Clair Shores, Mich., Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2020. In Macomb County, Frandle hung Trump banners outside his house and noticed that neighbors who used to stop to chat crossed to the other side of the street, not even offering a "hello." Some drivers wave, some flip the bird. He doesn't blame Trump for the discord, he blames Democrats and the media for failing to give Trump a fair shake, he said. He plans to vote in person on Election Day. "I just don't trust anything anymore," he said, except for what he hears directly from Trump. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
A passing motorist at right argues with Trump supporter Mike Jamerson, left, during a rally at an intersection in Mount Clemens, Mich., Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020. As the traditional Election Day closes in, Americans are exhausted from constant crises, on edge because of volatile political divisions and anxious about what will happen next. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Chad King, who started the Detroit chapter of the National African American Gun Association and teaches de-escalation training, practices at a shooting range in Taylor, Mich., Wed, Oct. 28, 2020. King started his group in 2017 to promote responsible gun ownership in the Black community. Now the nation is on edge contemplating the added threat of possible clashes in the wake of Election Day. Some of his students sought gun ownership as far right groups appear to them to have become more emboldened. Weeks ago, a group of white men were arrested for allegedly plotting to kidnap the Democratic governor of Michigan. Trump has refused to promise a peaceful transfer of power. He told a far-right group to "stand back and stand by." (AP Photo/David Goldman)
People carrying signs supporting voting rights are reflected in a puddle as they arrive at an early voting center at Model City Branch Library, as part of a "Souls to the Polls" march, in Miami, Sunday, Nov. 1, 2020. As Election Day closes in, Americans are exhausted from constant crises, on edge because of volatile political divisions and anxious about what will happen next.(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Michelle McDonald fills out her absentee ballot at the city clerk's office in Warren, Mich., Wed, Oct. 28, 2020. McDonald got chills when she submitted her early ballot for Biden in Macomb County. As a Black woman, she hadn't experienced that sensation since casting her ballot in 2008 for Barack Obama. It felt like that monumental of a moment. She was anxious as she walked into the clerk's office, but as she walked out she felt something different: hope. "I did my part," she said. "I have faith that no matter what happens things are going to get better. God has us all." (AP Photo/David Goldman)
CLAIRE GALOFARO
3 November 2020, 9:37 am ·8-min read
She carefully planned a five-hour drive to the polling place in her Tennessee hometown to vote on Election Day. She considered the traffic, the weather, the surging coronavirus pandemic and — something she never imagined having to contemplate — the possibility of civil unrest in the aftermath of an American election.
The last four years have delivered so many shocks that anything seemed possible to Lacey Stannard, the wife of a soldier. She had tried to get an absentee ballot sent to her home on a military base on the other side of the state. But the clerk in her hometown refused. A part of her thought it was crazy to drive 10 hours roundtrip to cast a Democratic vote in deep-red Tennessee, but a larger part thought it was worth it to register her displeasure.
Many Americans who lined up before dawn to vote on Election Day are exhausted from constant crises, uneasy because of volatile political divisions and anxious about what will happen next. Like those who cast ballots early, their agony is not in deciding between President Donald Trump or his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden. Most made that choice long ago. Instead, those voting in record numbers say basic democratic foundations feel suddenly brittle: Will their vote count? Will the loser accept the result? Will the winner find a way to repair a fractured, sick and unsettled nation?
Stannard, a 28-year-old mother of two, hit the road Monday evening to arrive at the polls early on Election Day, only to turn around and rush home before an uncertain conclusion might aggravate a nation already on edge — fear she blames on the president's penchant for pitting people against each other.
"When the election results start trickling in, I would rather be safe at home, which is sad because never in my life... would I have thought I have to hurry up and vote and get home so that I wouldn't have to be fearful," she said. "Which is one of the reasons I'm driving five hours to vote because I shouldn't have to feel that way."
Across the country, Americans say the stress of this election has made them physically ill. Others have obsessively tracked polls to soothe their nerves, or bought guns, or researched moving abroad, or retreated to a cabin in the woods. Tension has ratcheted up, as each side believes the other is threatening to usher in the end of America as we know it.
On Tuesday morning in the critical battleground suburbs of Detroit, 57-year-old Karama Mishkoor and her daughter planned to vote, go to work and immediately head home.
"Please, please, please don't go anywhere else," Mishkoor begged her daughter, 24-year-old Ashley.
Mishkoor, a devout Catholic and immigrant from Iraq, said she fled that country decades ago for peace, stability and freedom, and she's sad that now this nation seems so shaken. They support Trump, but didn't put signs in the yard because there's so much anger. Ashley Mishkoor said she'd seen the partisan vitriol piling up on social media and wondered: What if that cracks open in real life?
"This week is really scary," she said. "I'm just hoping, whatever way it goes, there's peace in our country."
In New York City, too, voter Nurit Dallimore likened the political climate to the "war zone" atmosphere of her native Israel.
"The country is so divided that I feel like it's not going to be good either way," Dallimore worried.
A nation already uncertain about its future amid a worsening pandemic, an economic sucker punch and series of police killings that forced a national reckoning on racism is now contemplating the added threat of possible clashes in the wake of Election Day.
Caravans of Trump supporters clogged traffic around the New York metropolitan area this weekend. In Texas, cars and pickup trucks festooned with Trump flags swarmed a Biden campaign bus, sometimes boxing it in. Trump criticized the FBI for investigating the incident, calling the drivers "patriots." Weeks ago, a group of men were arrested for allegedly plotting to kidnap the Democratic governor of Michigan. Gun sales are through the roof. Some businesses boarded up their buildings.
About 7 in 10 voters say they are anxious about the election, according to an AP-NORC poll last month. Only a third are excited. Biden supporters were more likely than Trump voters to be nervous — 72% to 61%.
But Trump's supporters, too, said they feel a sense of dread. The president has warned them that if he loses, the country would lurch toward socialism, crime would consume the streets, freedom would buckle under political correctness.
"I feel terrified in a world with Biden, absolutely terrified," said 69-year-old Susan Spence, a retired teacher in Powder Springs, Georgia. "I'm here because I believe in Americanism, not socialism."
As the coronavirus crisis surges to more than 9 million infections and 230,000 dead, the election for many is a referendum on how Trump has handled the pandemic. In the final days of the campaign, he has continued to downplay the toll it has taken, and many of his supporters say they find no fault in his response.
Olivia Tomlin, a 70-year-old in Nashville, said she lost family members to the virus, and still she supports the president.
"I voted for Trump because I think he was treated unfairly over the coronavirus, and I don't think it's anyone's fault. I think it's something that happened that we couldn't control," she said. "I still think it was beyond our control."
But Haydee Gregeda arrived Tuesday on her 75th birthday at a polling place in Brooklyn, using a walking stick and holding tight to her daughter's arm. She has had trouble walking since spending more than two weeks in an ICU battling coronavirus.
"The president didn't pay attention to us, so where are we heading?" she asked. "Thousands and thousands more will die."
Early voting numbers suggest 2020 will shatter voter turnout records. Trump has alleged that widespread absentee voting will lead to fraud, though there is no evidence to support that claim.
In a rural stretch of upstate New York, Jim Czebiniak, 72 years old and semiretired, arrived to vote Tuesday at the town hall.
"I don't trust the way the mail is being handled, I don't trust the way ballots are getting ignored or thrown out," he said.
In Macomb County, Michigan, Terry Frandle hung Trump banners outside his house and noticed that neighbors who used to stop to chat crossed to the other side of the street, not even offering a "hello." Some drivers wave, some flip the bird. He doesn't blame Trump for the discord — he blames Democrats and the media for failing to give Trump a fair shake, he said.
"I just don't trust anything anymore," he said — except for what he hears directly from Trump. He didn't trust the mailed ballots either, so voted in-person on Election Day.
In suburban Reston, Va., Michelle Scheatzle, 47, said casting her ballot for Trump Tuesday made her less anxious, because she felt she did her part. She feels like pressure has been boiling up, and she expects protests and unrest as the days unfold.
In Lexington, Kentucky, too, 26-year-old Jonaé Collins anticipated trouble this week. She never got her absentee ballot in the mail, so planned to go polls Tuesday afternoon. She was nervous. She wasn't sure how the crowds would act and how the discord in the country would play out after.
"I feel like with whoever wins, there's going to be outrage and that kind of scares me," she said.
In West Philadelphia, James "Sekou" Jenkins, a 68-year-old retired carpenter and mechanic, said he voted in person for Biden "to get that nut out of the White House." Jenkins fought for civil rights in the 1960s, and he said he feels like Trump is "drawing battle lines."
Mark Creighton in Lexington, South Carolina, voted for Trump in 2016, but he's come to agree with Jenkins.
"Trump's a maniac. He's an embarrassment to this country," said Creighton, 46, who voted for Biden as well as Sen. Lindsey Graham's Democratic challenger Jaime Harrison. Graham, he said, was Trump's puppet, and that "says a lot about his character."
He rebuked the president for inciting violence and refusing to condemn white supremacy.
Trump at a recent debate told a far-right group to "stand back and stand by."
As a Black woman, Charlotte Moss, 64, of Oakland County, Michigan, decided not to live in fear. She had become increasingly concerned about emboldened militant racist groups. It had once seemed outrageous that leaders would stoke racial tensions to pit Americans against each other, maybe even violently. But that doesn't seem so outrageous anymore, she said.
She had never owned a gun, but about a month ago, bought one.
"Hatred is on the frontlines. People aren't afraid to be hateful anymore," said Sadiyyah Porter-Lowdry as she cast her ballot Tuesday in Charlotte, North Carolina. "It feels a bit different, but it also feels very much the same."
A lot of people were afraid to vote on Election Day, she said.
But she didn't want fear to stop her, so she marched into a Baptist church to cast her ballot.
Associated Press journalists Sharon Cohen in Chicago; Michelle Liu in Lexington, South Carolina; Sophia Tulp in Atlanta; Jim Mustian and Luis Andres Henao in New York City; Jeff Martin in Powder Springs, Georgia; Michael Hill in Knox, New York; Teresa Walker in Nashville; Sarah Blake Morgan in Charlotte, North Carolina; Natalie Pompilio in Philadelphia; and Hannah Fingerhut contributed to this report. Galofaro reported from Macomb County, Michigan.