AMHERST — As Election Day looms, Amherst poll worker Ken Hoffman had one thing to say as he browsed the Amherst Farmers Market Saturday morning with his wife, Jan Hoffman.
“I’m so glad it is almost over,” Hoffman said.
The Amherst couple will work the polls at different precincts Tuesday, just as they have for almost a decade.
Voters interviewed in downtown Amherst on Saturday morning — just days before the presidential election — echoed the couple’s concerns about presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump and the country’s political landscape.
The Hoffmans said they have been unimpressed by the shallow discourse that has dominated the campaign cycle and wish the candidates addressed issues like climate change and economic inequality more directly.
“The level of discourse has deteriorated,” Jan Hoffman said. “There has been no discussion about poverty, and people aren’t doing well. Clinton hasn’t acknowledged that disaffection, and they have a right to feel that way.”
She said a number of her friends plan to stay home on voting day, or cast a ballot for a third-party candidate.
“It’s disturbing for me that they will not vote,” Hoffman said. “And they’re my friends.”
But beyond disaffected voters, Jan Hoffman said she feels Hillary Clinton’s candidacy has revealed a darker side of American politics — sexism.
“With the Obama administration we started to understand racism. And now with Clinton, we are staring to understand misogyny,” Jan Hoffman said. “This election has revealed something we would rather not see.”
Carolyn Bassett, of Pelham, works in the communications and journalism departments at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She echoed Jan Hoffman’s concern, saying Trump has revealed himself as “unabashedly anti-women.”
“Trump is derogatory and dangerous in his language about women,” Bassett said. “He is a dangerous role model for the country and the world.”
Bassett, a Clinton supporter, began to cry as she discussed her plans to vote for Clinton on Tuesday. As a feminist and a professional woman, she said she feels deeply about seeing Clinton’s name on the ballot.
“My mother would be thrilled, if I were to be able to call her on Tuesday,” Bassett said as she wiped tears from her eyes. “I was not sure that I would live to see this. My mom would have loved to see this. My grandmother, all the amazing women who came before me.”
Holyoke Community College student Tyler Jimenez, 20, said he is “not too keen” about the candidates, though he is excited to vote in his first presidential election. For Jimenez, the election cycle has felt more like reality television than politics.
“Trump keeps making it seem like another episode of ‘Celebrity Apprentice,’” Jimenez said.
According to Jimenez, who lives in Westfield, about half of his friends and two of his college professors will not vote Tuesday because they feel neither candidate can offer them anything.
But for Jimenez, voting does not feel like a choice. A former Bernie Sanders supporter, Jimenez said he will cast his vote for Clinton.
“I feel obligated to,” Jimenez said. “My dad used to tell me, ‘When you vote, it matters.’”
In South Hadley, signs supporting candidates and voicing opinions on the special ballot question dot the lawns in many neighborhoods.
Some of those who’ve taken to their lawns for their candidate were doing it for the first time this election.
Outside Tammi Kleeberg’s house in South Hadley, there is large handmade Trump sign and a few more bearing the candidate’s signature slogan, “Make America great again.”
This is the first election Kleeberg said her family has put signs out.
“What Donald Trump says, we need a change. That’s why we’re passionate about it,” Kleeberg said.
“Ironically, we’ve had a lot of people being positive about Trump,” she said.
Men and women of all ages have knocked on their door to talk about the signs, Kleeberg said.
Of this year’s election, Kleeberg, a hairdresser, said it was crazy.
“I had to not get into with my clients, unless somebody opens the conversation,” she said. “I’m not ashamed to admit it (supporting Trump.) I’m not argumentative.”
Displayed on Scott Jarry’s front lawn were multiple signs in support of Trump.
Jarry, who voted early, said he hasn’t been following the election in the last two days.
“There’s a lot of things that need to be fixed,” Jarry said. “There is a lot of messed up stuff.”
Jarry said he supported Trump early on and looked into his earlier years.
“He’s pretty much been on the same course, hasn’t changed his views,” Jarry said.
As for Clinton, Jarry said he hated her on a “personal level” and said she should be in prison.
On Nikolay Sorokin’s lawn, there are signs for both Trump and Clinton.
Sorokin, who said he’s registered as an independent, has never voted for a Republican. When the home’s other resident put a Trump sign on the lawn, Sorokin put one up in favor of Clinton.
“I had to,” he said. “This (Trump sign) just embarrasses me.”