New York Metropolis, US – Because the solar rose over the 5 boroughs of New York Metropolis on Tuesday morning, a sure unstated unease permeated the crisp autumn air.
New Yorkers — each supporters of former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris — flooded polling locations early on November 5 as voters in the USA started to duke it out on the poll field.
For some, it was an opportunity to dismantle the established order. For a lot of, it was the election of a lifetime.
New York Metropolis is a Democratic stronghold. In 2020, it voted overwhelmingly in opposition to Trump, serving to to ship present President Joe Biden a crucial election victory.
However every of the 5 boroughs has its personal character, and the pockets of voters that make up New York Metropolis paint a way more sophisticated image of this 12 months’s presidential race.
Within the blue-collar neighbourhood of Ridgewood, a part of the westernmost borough of Queens, 36-year-old hairstylist Adrianne Kuss expressed nervousness concerning the election’s eventual end result.
“I really feel nervous,” Kuss instructed Al Jazeera moments after casting her vote for Harris on Tuesday morning. “No person ought to be on the fence… Too many issues are at stake.”
Sporting pink hair with matching pink sun shades, cargo pants and boots, Kuss added that the prospect of one other Trump presidency frightened her.
The Republican candidate has pledged to be a dictator “for day one” if re-elected on Tuesday. Kuss additionally identified that Trump has made quite a few anti-transgender and anti-immigrant feedback.
“As a German American, I obtained this factor about fascism,” Kuss defined.
“I’m involved about his racism, about his misogyny. But in addition, he’s outdated and senile and out of contact. He’s not somebody who represents New Yorkers. I imply, actually, he’s this silver-spoon fool.”
She pointed to the occasions of January 6, 2021, as fuelling her fears. On that day, a mob of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol to disrupt the certification of the 2020 election after Trump repeatedly known as the outcomes a fraud.
“I don’t need this cultish mob rearing its ugly head once more,” Kuss defined. “That was completely terrifying. In 2020, when the rebellion occurred, folks’s lives have been actually in danger. I don’t wish to see that once more.”
Queens, nevertheless, is Trump’s house borough: He was born and raised within the space, and his household’s actual property enterprise was anchored there.
Historically, the borough seems the next proportion of voters — particularly white voters — for the previous president and actual property billionaire than different pockets of town.
In 2020, as an example, Trump carried over 26 % of the vote in Queens, the next quantity than in Brooklyn, Manhattan or the Bronx however decrease than in Staten Island.
The Republican continues to have sway in areas of Queens like Ridgewood, a working-class, blue-collar neighbourhood the place many Polish, German and Albanian voters reside.
Retired Queens instructor Alice Kokasch, 83, is considered one of Trump’s supporters. Kokasch, who voted for the Republican chief in 2016 and 2020, mentioned she had no qualms about sending Trump again to the Oval Workplace — regardless of his 34 felony convictions final Could.
“He didn’t do something that unhealthy,” Kokasch instructed Al Jazeera exterior Public College 88, the place she taught and went to highschool. It had been remodeled right into a polling website for Tuesday’s race.
Kokasch mentioned that, no matter Trump’s private failings, they have been no dealbreaker. “He’s not excellent, however who’s, proper?”
Brian, a 28-year-old Latino immigrant in Queens, additionally voted for Trump. Likewise, he was unfazed by Trump’s scandals and prison historical past: Final 12 months, the Republican chief turned the primary US president ever to face prison costs.
“Truthfully, it doesn’t trouble me,” Brian, who additionally declined to present his title out of worry of retribution, instructed Al Jazeera.
“No person’s excellent, and I simply look extra in the direction of what can he do for his nation slightly than his prior felony instances. I do acknowledge that that did occur. And, in fact, that’s not a superb look on anyone. However, you understand, no person’s excellent.”
For Brian, a customer support employee, Trump’s financial report was a mighty pull on the poll field.
“I imagine he’s the precise candidate for us,” Brian mentioned. “Whereas he was in energy, I felt just like the economic system was heading in the right direction.”
Nonetheless, Brian acknowledged that Trump might not settle for the election outcomes if Harris inches forward of him within the tight presidential race.
“Probably not,” Brian mentioned with a chuckle. “I do know he gained’t settle for.”
One other voter in Queens, David, a 30-year-old building employee with a light European accent, additionally voted for Trump on Tuesday alongside his father. He declined to present his final title out of worry his political leanings may have an effect on the household enterprise.
Like many Trump supporters, he cited the excessive inflation beneath outgoing President Joe Biden as a motivation for his vote.
“The economic system’s going to sh**,” David mentioned. “All the pieces is up. Inflation is at an all-time excessive. I believe it’s time to empty the swamp. What extra can I say?”
With wars ongoing in Ukraine, Gaza and Lebanon, he additionally expressed fears that the US could possibly be dragged into a brand new battle beneath additional Democratic management.
“Numerous wars…,” David mentioned, trailing off. “They need our troops to go on the market and kill whereas they’re eating someplace in Washington, DC, consuming steak dinners.”
For him, a Harris win was inconceivable — and he echoed the unfounded election fraud claims that Trump has unfold forward of Tuesday’s election, looking for to undermine a possible Democratic victory.
“There’s a variety of spooky stuff occurring,” David instructed Al Jazeera, citing a conspiracy concept that hundreds of ballots had been hijacked off an 18-wheeler in Pennsylvania. “I’m not accepting the outcomes.”
South of Queens, within the extra left-leaning borough of Brooklyn, public sentiment was barely completely different.
In Williamsburg, Brooklyn, a girl strolling her canine and toting a yoga mat hugged a buddy because the pair lined as much as enter a polling station on North fifth Avenue.
Close by, Brooklyn artist James Kennedy, 46, who wore a tie-dye hat with a blue Kamala pin, posed for a selfie. He instructed Al Jazeera he was feeling the burden of the second.
“[I feel] fairly nervous,” Kennedy mentioned. “I don’t know, man. It’s powerful. I simply want we may all simply get alongside once more, you understand? However I don’t know if it’s going to occur, however we’ll see. I simply hope positivity wins over negativity.”
The divisive presidential cycles of the final decade had left him feeling depleted, he defined. Nonetheless, Kennedy, a longtime registered Democrat, mentioned his alternative was clear: He would vote for Harris. There was no manner he may assist Trump’s behaviour and insurance policies.
“The best way this man acts, it’s simply unpresidential,” the artist mentioned of Trump.
Kennedy, significantly, had been troubled by the undoing of Roe v Wade, the 1973 Supreme Courtroom resolution that had beforehand protected the precise to abortion entry.
Trump has boasted on the marketing campaign path that it was the judges he appointed to the courtroom that made Roe’s demise attainable. In 2022, after Roe was overturned, many states took the chance to implement restrictions on abortion rights — if not ban the process fully.
Kennedy fears additional draconian legal guidelines could possibly be imposed if Republicans seize the White Home once more.
“I believe that’s simply actually what’s so necessary proper now,” he added. “However I simply suppose it’s ridiculous that we even need to have [that conversation].”
Throughout the water, within the island borough of Manhattan, polling websites within the Harlem neighbourhood drew scores of primarily African American voters.
Many have been desperate to solid votes for Vice President Harris, who can be the primary Black lady elected to the White Home if profitable in Tuesday’s race.
One polling website at EM Moore Public Housing drew 98-year-old lifelong Harlem resident Eula Dalton, who walked arm-in-arm together with her daughter, Rose Dalton, to the polls.
“It was stunning,” Eula Dalton mentioned of this 12 months’s voting course of.
Each mom and daughter likened the second to Barack Obama’s beautiful 2008 presidential win. Obama turned the primary non-white individual ever to steer the nation.
Rose, a courtroom reporter, travelled from Connecticut to make sure her mom, who struggles with early onset dementia, may train her proper to vote.
“I knew I wished to deliver her,” Rose mentioned, explaining that it was troublesome for Eula to vote with out help. “She’s been inactive since Obama, I imagine, as a result of, you understand, again then, she was most likely 16 years youthful. She was extra conscious.”
However the Election Day vitality in Harlem was “superior”, Rose mentioned, calling it a monumental second in American politics. She predicted Harris would win in a “landslide”.
“Boy, let’s wait until tonight,” she mentioned. “We all know it’s historic. It’s very historic.”
