USA is, more and more, a politically and ideologically polarized country. This growing gap has been the protagonist in recent years and it was again this Tuesday in some Parliamentary election unusually crucial and especially tense.
Although at the time of writing these lines the schools were still open and results were unknown, uncertainty that in some states it was warned that it could be prolonged during days for him complex (and legal) vote counting process, a deeply divided country was portrayed at the polls. And with the republicans arriving as favorites to be done at least with the control of the lower housefor which they needed to add only five seatseverything pointed to the fact that the US will also have a divided government in Washington again.
However, something deeper and less frequent in midterm elections than a mere recomposition of the chambers in Washington or of the state governments also depends on the decisions adopted by the citizens in these ‘midterms’: at stake is the definition of what the United States is and can be in the coming years.
“If who wins? have called into question and endangered the legitimacy of our elections I don’t know if from now on we will continue to know what this country is, we will enter unknown territory & rdquor ;, Genna Kaufman warned this Tuesday at a polling station in New York. This 36-year-old woman, a gynecologist, pregnant and a Democratic voter, was referring to the large presence on ballots throughout the country of hundreds of Republican candidates questioning the legitimate results of the 2020 elections that Donald Trump lost and that, like the former president who threatens to run again in 2024, they do not hide their determination to pose a present and future challenge to the integrity of the electoral system.
delays and conspiracy theories
That strategy that undermines trust in institutions and in the democratic system itself it was exposed again, as it happened in those last presidential elections, this Tuesday, with challenges to voting and vote counting in some of the areas where the races are most disputed and that, at least on paper, could give Democrats an advantage.
in the decisive Pennsylvania and in the county that includes Philadelphiathe main urban center and where the black vote It is crucial, for example, slowing down the process to count between 15,000 and 30,000 ballots was secured after the city decided to use a laborious verification process before a demand presented by a group behind which there are figures such as William Barr, Trump’s former attorney general, and Karl Rove the strategist who was “architect & rdquor; of the presidency of George W. Bush.
In Fulton County in Georgiaanother state where the fight for the Senate seat is as fierce as in Pennsylvania and where there were also tensions In 2020, a mother and son who worked at a polling station were removed from their duties after it was exposed that they had participated in the protests in Washington on January 6, 2021 that culminated in the storming the Capitol. Hundreds of cops They patrolled more than half of the 300 polling stations to try to protect the workers, who after the presidential elections saw the threats, including death, Against them.
Problems suffered by 20% of vote tabulation machines in Maricopathe most populous and consequential county in crucial Arizona, were diagnosed by two of the Republican election officials as mere technical glitches. That did not prevent right-wing media Y local Republican party figures they start shaking again conspiracy theories and ghosts of alleged fraud electoral. The president of the state formation, Kelli Ward, even spoke of “illicit activities & rdquor; and ask for resignations. In the state Kari Lake, Blake Masters, Mark Finchem and Abraham Hamadeh, Republican candidates for governor, senator, secretary of state and attorney general, respectively, have refused to accept Trump’s defeat in 2020.
While, in Florida and in Missourithe secretaries of state republicans they refused to accept let them enter the schools federal election observers that the Justice Department has dotted around the country to try to ensure that minority voting rights are not infringed.
voter voices
Although the tensions once again placed dark clouds over these elections, millions of Americans have also normally exercised their right on a day that was already being reached with high participation rates: In a record, more than 40 million had voted early before this Tuesday.
Among those who waited until Tuesday were people like Ana, a woman of Dominican origin and a resident of Queens who cast her vote for the Republicans. She explained it by ensuring that “crime is harder & rdquor; and “things are more expensive”. She also talked about her religious beliefs against abortion. And she reflected the progress conservatives have made on those issues even in progressive bastions like New York.
In the city, however, it was still easier to find democrats. And they were people like Kate, a 59-year-old woman, who said “not scared, but angry & rdquor;. “Fear is used as a tool, as a tactic to make some people fear others, and I choose to be angry that the conservative minority in this country has such a loud voice, that politicians spend time reminding us women that they consider us less & rdquor ;.
Another Democratic voter was Steven Ávila, a 33-year-old tech industry worker who was also addressing the country’s political polarization. “we can debate about inflation or the economy, we can have political differences& rdquor ;, he said, “but the Republican Party is sowing division and doubt. It is worrying that the electoral deniers not only have a voice, but positions. And that’s a scary prospect.” “They should rise up, seek out a father figure, the adult in the room, but moreas long as Trump is the head of the Republican Party It’s difficult & rdquor ;, he thought.
This persistence of Trump in US politics was also denounced by Shirley Henderson Mingus, a 71-year-old black woman. “Why isn’t he still in jail? With him increased racism, disrespect, threats to people; with him the Capitol was assaulted & rdquor ;, she said. And she posed a question that the polls will decide: “is this america?”
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