Making a choice: Voters talk of decision and of tensions

Election Day has arrived at last, and Americans are heading to the polls to have their say in the choice of the next president. Some paused to talk about their decisions and the tensions of the moment.

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When Kelvin Thomas voted Tuesday on Chicago’s south side, he expressed relief the campaign’s mudslinging was over. But he couldn’t shelve his irritation with Donald Trump.

Thomas, who works for a cleaning service, said it’s crazy that getting a job sweeping floors requires experience, yet a candidate with no record of working in government could become president. But his dismay over Trump is balanced by his anticipation of seeing Hillary Clinton elected.

“I got to see a black president. I’m going to see a woman president and I got to see the Cubs win the World Series. It would take five lifetimes to see all that. It’s great.”

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Voters lined up Tuesday outside a polling station at a strip mall in Denham Springs, Louisiana. Back in August, Donald Trump visited this town after historic floods inundated neighbourhoods with 10 feet of water, destroying 90 per cent of local homes. Bill Smith, 59, said the visit confirmed his decision to back Trump.

He “really invigorated the people,” said Smith, sales manager at a car dealership, while Clinton “didn’t bother to show up.”

Smith is confident Trump can unite the divided country.

And if Clinton is elected?

“Then we pray. We pray like crazy,” he said.

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In Las Vegas, Jacqueline Lima voted for the first time Tuesday after a mariachi band, dispatched by an immigrant rights group to help get out the vote, stopped by her home.

Lima, who is 20 and whose mother is originally from Mexico, said the bitter campaign had distracted attention from the fact that Americans might be electing their first female president.

“It makes me proud to be a woman, knowing that there might actually be a woman as the first president,” said Lima, who took her 4-year-old sister with her to vote.

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David Hansen identifies himself as a Republican. But when Hansen, 63, voted Tuesday morning at a church in Roseville, Minnesota, he rejected both major party candidates in favour of Libertarian Gary Johnson.

“Until more of us do that, nothing is going to change,” said Hansen, who is the chief financial officer at a small company and a grandfather. “The Republicans are going to be far right and the Democrats are going to be far left… I couldn’t vote for either one of them.”

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James Aubey supported Texas Sen. Ted Cruz during the early part of the presidential campaign. But by Tuesday, when the 55-year-old nurse voted at church in Topeka, Kansas, he was firmly behind Trump.

Aubey said he likes Trump’s stance on trade and determination to bring back jobs to the U.S. And he applauds the candidate’s call to bar illegal immigrants and Muslims.

“We live in a world of terrorism today, and we need to keep our nation safe,” Aubey said.

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Amina Abboushi calls herself a proud Muslim. But she said her identity as an American brought her to an elementary school in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn. She voted for Green Party candidate Jill Stein.

Abboushi said she is dismayed both by the investigation of Clinton’s use of a private email server and Trump’s fiery rhetoric. Abboushi, who is 34 and works for a mortgage company, said she’ll support whoever wins. But she yearns to see people united to solve problems, rather than focus on what divides them.

“You can’t just point out one trait — somebody’s Mexican, somebody’s Muslim, somebody’s white, somebody’s black,” she said. “As soon as you start segregating that way it’s just all downhill from there…”

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At East 91st Christian Church in Indianapolis, Ranita Wires, a 50-year-old homemaker, cast her ballot for Clinton.

“I trust Hillary,” she said. “I don’t believe there’s anyone perfect in politics, that’s for sure. I think she’d make a better president, she’s more qualified.”

Like other voters at the church, Wires said she was relieved the campaign was finished.

“This has been the worst,” Wires said. The divisions exposed by the campaign point to the need not just for healing, but for more voter education, she said.

“You go to other countries, they understand their politics. I think we listen to the sound bites off of television, and we don’t really look at the big picture.”

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In Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, where polls opened just after midnight, Thomas Tillotson picked Libertarian Gary Johnson. He said both major parties have “gone in directions that really don’t fit who I am and what I believe.”

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Associated Press writers Don Babwin Chicago, Russell Contreras in Las Vegas, Amy Forliti in Roseville, Minnesota, John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, Jeff Karoub in Dearborn, Michigan, Michael Kunzelman in Denham Springs, Louisiana, Tom Murphy in Indianapolis and Rodrique Ngowi in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire contributed to this story.