Making a choice: Voters talk of decision and of tensions

Americans, after having cast their vote, paused to talk about their decisions and the tensions of the moment.
Thomas Tillotson and Russ Van Deursen differed when they voted for president early Tuesday in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, one of the first polling sites to open in the nation. But they were in solid agreement on one thing.
“It’s very exciting to be the first in the nation,” said Van Deursen.”Your vote is right out there in the small little hamlet that we have of seven or eight voters and it feels like you’re a real part of democracy.”
He voted for Democrat Hillary Clinton because “our country needs to move forward and I didn’t believe that a presidency with (Republican) Donald Trump would move forward in a positive way.”
Polls in the town opened just after midnight closed as soon as everyone had voted.
“It’s an honor and privilege to be first and this is my 11th time doing it and it never gets boring,” said Tillotson, a 71-year-old business consultant who voted for Libertarian Gary Johnson. He said both major parties have “gone in directions that really don’t fit who I am and what I believe.”
When Art Meadowcroft exited city hall in Plymouth, Minnesota, Monday, after casting an early ballot, he reached into his pocket for a camouflage cap bearing Donald Trump’s slogan, “Make America Great Again,” and placed it on his head.
This election marks the first time that sisters Yadira and Catherine Jimenez have voted. They cast early ballots in West Jordan, Utah, and had no hesitation about their choice. Both voted for Hillary Clinton.
For Yadira, whose husband has lived in the US since he was a toddler but is not a citizen, the vote was partly a reaction to Donald Trump’s hard line on immigration. But the sisters, both young mothers and pregnant, said they also wanted to signal their approval of a woman as the country’s leader.
She and her sister said it was important that the winning candidate be someone who cares about people like them. But Trump is definitely not that person, they said. “He’s racist not only to Latinos, but to pretty much every race,” said Catherine Jimenez, who is 20 and studying to be a medical assistant.

Source: Arab News