Anxious nation awaits Election Day

She could have dropped her ballot at the post office, but she wasn’t sure if she should trust the mail. She considered slipping it into the secured box outside City Hall, but imagine if something happened? A fire maybe.

This season has delivered so many shocks that anything seemed possible. So 58-year-old Diane Spiteri trudged up three flights of steps to put her absentee ballot directly into the hands of the clerk in this battleground suburb of Detroit.

As the original Election Day closes in, Americans are exhausted from constant crises, on edge as a result of volatile political divisions and anxious about what may happen next. Their agony isn't in deciding between President Donald Trump or his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden. Most made that choice long ago. Instead, voters arriving in record numbers to cast early ballots say basic democratic foundations feel brittle: Will their vote count? Will the loser accept the effect? Will the winner repair a sick and unsettled nation?

“I just can’t wait before whole thing has ended. And I believe it’s long from over, even after Tuesday. There’s just so much anxiety,” said Spiteri, who voted the other day for Biden. “I hope that there wasn’t too much damage done within the last four years that it can’t be undone.”

Within Macomb County and across the country, some 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.

“Our country is in circumstances of chaos,” said Roberta Henderson, as she deposited her ballot in Sterling Heights, Michigan. She voted Trump in 2016. But she grew sick and tired of his divisiveness. This time around, she voted for Biden.

A nation already uncertain about its future amid a worsening pandemic and a national reckoning on racism is currently contemplating the added risk of clashes in the wake of Election Day.

In Texas, vehicles festooned with Trump flags swarmed a Biden campaign bus. Weeks hence, a group of men were arrested for allegedly plotting to kidnap Michigan’s Democratic governor. Gun sales have skyrocketed. Trump refused to promise a calm transfer of power.

About 7 in 10 voters say they are anxious about the election, an AP-NORC poll found. Biden supporters were much more likely than Trump voters to be nervous - 72% to 61%.

But Trump’s supporters, too, said they feel a feeling of dread. The president has warned that if he loses crime would consume the streets and freedom would buckle under political correctness.

“If we let that other guy in, all hell will probably break loose,” said Dan Smith, 53, in Norfolk, Virginia. He’s supporting Trump because he’s concerned about “law and order.”

As the coronavirus crisis surges to more than 230,000 dead, the election for most is a referendum about how Trump has handled the pandemic. Many of his supporters say they find no fault in his response.

In New Albany, Ohio, Jason Baker, 44, said that he and his family all had COVID-19 8 weeks ago, still he voted for Trump. He believes the pandemic has “been highly politized to the stage where it’s disgusting.”

But Theresa McGarity in Mount Clemens, Michigan, lost her mother to COVID at 76 years old.

“I guess since it hit home, it’s not political anymore. It’s an ordinary, simple right and wrong,” said McGarity, who voted for Biden. “When someone in leadership knows a thing that could flip all of your world upside down and they don’t let you know. And you have the right to vote to improve that, shame you if you don’t.”

Trump has alleged that widespread absentee voting will lead to fraud, though there is absolutely no evidence to aid that claim.

In Macomb County, Terry Frandle plans to vote in person on Election Day.

“I simply don’t trust anything anymore,” he said.

He hung Trump banners outside his house and noticed neighbors who used to stop to chat crossed the street. He doesn’t blame Trump for the discord - he blames the media for failing woefully to give Trump a good shake, he said.

On the far side of the aisle, too, persons are grappling with political tension.

In the Chicago suburbs, Phyllis Delrosario, 73, said her mood vacillates from excitement to depression. She researched moving overseas if Trump is reelected.

“I just feel just like I’m this raw exposed nerve at all times, and the anxiety of most this and the chaos of ‘what’s he likely to destroy next?’” she said.

Trump at a recently available debate declined to evidently condemn white supremacy. He told a far-right group to “stand back and stand by.”

As a Black woman, Charlotte Moss, 64, of Oakland County, Michigan, had become increasingly worried about emboldened militant groups.

She had never owned a gun, but in regards to a month ago, bought one. She took a class at the Detroit chapter of the National African American Gun Association. Chad King started the club in 2017, and it’s grown to 210 members. In the weeks prior to the election, he scheduled two courses on deescalating tense situations. They sold out in three days.

Michelle McDonald got chills when she submitted her early ballot for Biden in Macomb County the other day.

She was anxious as she walked into the clerk’s office, but as she walked out she felt different things: hope.

“I did my part,” she said. “I've faith that regardless of what happens things will get better. God has us all.”