AMHERST — After weeks of mail-in ballots, early voting and rising tension over Tuesday’s presidential election between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, voters turned out in a final push for their candidates on an Election Day unlike any other.
Here’s a snapshot of what some voters were thinking as Election Day got under way this morning.
In Amherst, Marjan Khodadoust summed up her hopes for the election’s conclusion in one word: “justice.”
“Whatever prevails will be the voice of the people, whichever way it goes,” she said.
Like most voters who spoke with the Gazette, Khodadoust cast her ballot for Biden, who she said has the best chance at unifying the polarized country and handling the COVID-19 crisis.
“He has a plan for COVID,” Khodadoust, a dentist at Triangle Family Dental in Amherst, said of Biden. “I’m in a health care profession, and I don’t plan to die because of it.”
Khodadoust said it’s “hard to tell” what Biden’s chances at victory are. But, speaking of Trump, she said, “a person who throws tantrums, who becomes aggressive, is a person who has lost control.”
Like many, Khodadoust is anxious not only to hear the results, but to see that they are accepted. In the past, Trump has refused to commit to a peaceful transition of power.
“I have to trust us,” Khodadoust said. “That we’re strong, and that whatever the majority of people want, that’s what it is, and whoever doesn’t win will swallow their pride.”
Vendela Rogers, a UMass student living in Amherst, also said “a lot is on the line right now.” Rogers, who supports Biden, said that she sees the two candidates as a choice between chaos and “a chance.”
“Everything feels very dangerous right now, and everyone needs to cool it,” Rogers said, “and there’s one person who will do it compared to the other.”
Rogers, who voted for the first time in a presidential election Tuesday, said she is hopeful Biden will win and feels that more people have turned against Trump over the course of his presidency.
Some weren’t sure what to expect, both in terms of the election and how people may react to the results. Although Biden is leading in national polls, not everyone was convinced that these surveys are an accurate indicator of how the election will play out.
Hadley resident Joanne Goding said that she feels the election “could go either way.” While many have already cast early votes, Goding thinks that the final push of in-person voters on Election Day will be the deciding factor in who wins the election.
“I think tomorrow, there will be people upset,” Goding said. “I’m nervous about violence, but it is what it is.”
Hadley resident Anthony Jung said that it seems like this year, more people are realizing voting is “not something to take for granted.”
Jung said that he was relieved that the Hadley Senior Center felt like a secure and peaceful polling location. But he’s also “nervous, because it feels like our president is pushing the boundaries of the Constitution,” Jung said, and because of Trumps’ encouragement of white supremacist groups and violence against his opposition.
While most who spoke with the Gazette supported Biden, others voted for Trump’s reelection. Among those supporters were Easthampton residents Martha and Raymond Stevens, who have been married for more than five decades.
“Neither of us agree with his tactics,” Martha said. “But as opposed to the alternative?”
She doesn’t think Biden will serve a full term as president, and she is not a supporter of Sen. Kamala Harris, Biden’s running mate.
Noah Cochran and their partner Molly Bajgot both voted for Biden, with Cochran calling the former vice president “the safest option for trying to keep people alive in the world.”
As they spoke, both Cochran and Bajgot noted a nearby truck adorned with flags and playing music in the Easthampton High School parking lot, with Cochran saying that it felt like an intimidation tactic.
The truck sported an American flag, as well as thin blue line flags denoting support for police, a thin red line flag denoting support for firefighters, and a half green and half blue line flag denoting support for the military police.
Ed James, an Easthampton resident and the owner of the truck, said he was waiting for his wife to vote, and that he’s supporting President Trump.
“The movement that I’ve seen is beyond anything that I’ve seen in my life,” said James, 55. “The enthusiasm, the support, is just through the roof.”
He said that he is displaying the flags for patriotic purposes, and that his actions were “absolutely not” meant to intimidate.
“There’s no candidate named here,” he said. “I’m supporting America and our military and our police.”
James, who is hoping for a “red wave” of Republican votes, believes that the media has been dividing people along racial and political lines.
“People just need to look and be fricking nice to one another,” he said.
In Westhampton, Janice Tracy, 78, said there “never was a doubt” in her mind about voting for Biden. “Anything would be better than Donald Trump,” said Tracy, although she also said she considers Biden to be a “much better choice.”
Lucas LaVoie, a college student at Boston University, voted for Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins, noting that Biden is likely to win Massachusetts and that he wanted the party to be eligible for federal funding.
“This is my first time voting in person,” said LaVoie, who said his ballot was lost in the mail.
David and Colleen Beaudin were part of the turnout at Leeds Elementary School in Northampton. They did not hesitate when asked who they voted for as they left the polls — Biden.
“Because Trump is crazy,” Colleen Beaudin said. David Beaudin voted for Biden in the primary, too. “He was the best of the candidates,” he said.
Chris Daehne also liked Biden. “I like his plan for going forward, especially with coronavirus.”
Daehne doesn’t like the idea of ranked-choice voting, a ballot question this election. “We’ve had the system in place for so long,” he said, adding that ranked-choice voting seems chaotic to him.
Many underscored the importance of voting as a civic duty. “In my opinion it’s a moral imperative to vote at literally every opportunity,” Daquaan Hamilton said.
Hamilton voted for Biden at the Northampton Senior Center, and wants to see Trump out of the White House.
“I cannot allow that man to do anything close to having power for the next four years,” he said, criticizing the president for how he’s handled the pandemic that has killed 250,000 people.
Hamilton said he’s wanted to see ranked-choice voting in the state and was excited about that ballot question. “Finally seeing that on the ballot is huge — it’s huge,” he said.
Up the road in Hatfield, Cathie McCoy actually timed how long it took her to vote, starting the timer when she left her car and ending it when she left town hall. It took seven minutes, she said.
“I think Biden is essentially a decent person,” McCoy said. Though she voted for Elizabeth Warren in the primary, “I think he (Biden) is the right man for the job at the time,” she said.
Like others, she expressed disdain for Trump, although the president did have supporters in Hatfield. Chris Hoffman said Trump best represents his views.
“I think he’s the lesser of two evils,” Hoffman said while standing outside Hatfield Town Hall. He said he watched the presidential debates and “studied their ideologies.”
Steve Raff and Deb Martin, also Hatfield voters, voted for Trump.
“We were registered Democrats until the Obama-Biden administration,” Raff said. “In all of the noise, a lot of what he’s done hasn’t been discussed,” he said of Trump.Jacquelyn Voghel can be reached at jvoghel@gazettenet.com. Greta Jochem can be reached at gjochem@gazettenet.com. Bera Dunau can be reached at bdunau@gazettenet.com.