WATERTOWN — Friday was the last day of in-person early voting in Massachusetts, and voters had all kinds of reasons to go to the polls.
But during our conversations on Friday, we found common ground among voters in this incredibly divisive election.
“This election has just gotten harder and harder,” said Sean Degan of Watertown.
“It was chaotic. It was quite tense,” said another voter.
Voters feel fatigue and anxiety
There was a line out the door at Watertown City Hall as voters rushed to meet the early voting deadline. We found that virtually everyone was feeling fatigue, anxiety, and stress during this election cycle.
“It was definitely a little scary. You can see that there’s a large group of people who think very differently than I do on a lot of issues, and that can be very scary,” said Watertown voter Keeley Bombard.
“It sure is tiring,” said another voter. “I think it’s the constant cycle of the news and the ads.”
This was reported by the American Secretary of State more than 1.6 million people cast their votes early. That number represents about 32% of registered voters. The state says two-thirds of early voters cast their ballots by mail.
“It’s been a very stressful cycle,” Degan said. “It feels really good to be part of it, but the stress will continue until Tuesday and probably long after.”
“The New Way of American Democracy”
We asked presidential historian and Boston University professor Tom Whalen how this political climate compared to past elections.
“We’ve never experienced this before, not in modern times,” Whalen said.
He said the stress and anxiety reported around this election reminds him of the “Hanging Chad” debacle of 2000, but the temperature and hostility exceeds anything he has studied in the modern political era.
“It’s the new way of American democracy,” Whalen said. ‘Or what’s left of it, because violence is now strongly woven into the fabric of our electoral and political system.’
He continued: “We are a very happy country. No matter what crisis we face, we always seem to fall out of the trees and land on our feet.”
Brandon Truit
