Voting Anxiety

Ananya- 

As an International Student, this U.S. Election so far has truly been a nightmare since this time feels so very personal. I constantly hear things about voter fraud and under the circumstances, it’s almost as though that is an insignificant issue but knowing the consequences just adds to the anxiety. This whole system is sort of broken in a way that clearly favors people like Trump. It really makes me wonder if there is a point to an election if the very essence of it is in danger constantly. I just hope it works out in the favor of people who would be affected directly by healthcare, education, and other such basic policies. 

Sabrina- 

I requested an absentee ballot from Maryland a month ago and it was never delivered! I recently called my board of elections and they actually emailed me a ballot instead which I filled out and snail-mailed back to Maryland from my apartment in New York. The stress of waiting for a ballot in this pivotal election season made me wish I were back at home to vote in-person, but traveling to and from home amidst a pandemic would have been my absolute last-ditch effort. It’s amazing to hear how many millions of Americans have already cast their ballots, but it was super frustrating to not be among those millions for reasons out of my personal control.

Claudia-

This is my first time voting in a presidential election, so I was pretty excited about heading to the polls on November 3. Because of the pandemic, my family decided to vote via mail-in ballots, and thankfully we received ours in time for the election. It took quite a while for our applications to be approved which made me nervous that we wouldn’t have enough time to send them back to our county. Two weeks before the election, my sister and I dropped off our ballots at our local high school and were so excited when the poll workers handed an “I VOTED” sticker over to us. 

I vote in Pennsylvania––a swing state––so my individual vote holds a lot of weight, especially in this election. In my own bubble, I feel like the candidate I voted for will win, but it’s easy to lose sight of the country as a whole.

Anonymous-

I consider myself a leftist, and honestly, I didn’t vote. I chose to stay anonymous because I know that a really unpopular opinion! I would never ask someone not to vote, but personally, I don’t want to vote for either of the candidates that I consider to stand for pretty much the same thing, which is a violent capitalist state. I would honestly rather take this time to form a revolution.  

• election
• voter suppression
• voting