On a rather temperate election day in New York City, Fjolla Arifi, 24, stood in line at a Manhattan polling site to cast her vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.
“I think one of the most important parts of her campaign is her discussion of codifying Roe v Wade to safeguard abortion rights at the federal level,” she said.
The 2024 presidential election has been nothing short of tense, and anxiety is running high in the country. Harris and former president Donald Trump have made their final pushes for swing state voters, but even in a historically Democratic stronghold like New York City, anticipation is prevalent on the streets. Poll lines grow long as people wait to cast their votes in person, while television screens at dive bars flash numbers of the latest razor-thin polling margins. Parents push children in strollers adorned with “I Voted” stickers. Attention is undivided. More than 140,000 people voted in New York City on the first day of early voting, making it the city’s highest-ever early voting turnout. With just hours to go before the polls close, the country seems to be waiting with bated breath.
Arifi was born and raised in New York City, and remembers when Trump was elected in 2016, when she was just 16 years old. She thinks the tension that overtook the city then is not unlike the atmosphere settling in now.
“I never thought that the stance in NYC would shift to more support for Donald Trump and generally, far-right views, but it’s something that I’ve definitely seen more of since the 2016 election,” she said.
Hope is perhaps not one of the emotions she feels, but rather a cautious determination to do her civic duty. “The division seems to be growing wider,” she noted.
She’s not the only one that feels that way. Katherine Yang, 23, also voted for Harris on Election Day, but feels largely “impassive” about the event. “I haven’t been spending much time on social media, which I think would expose me to more election and voting awareness, but also more fear and anxiety,” she said.
Young women like Arifi and Yang have become a key part of this election. NPR reported that this demographic (18-29 years old) make up some of the key voter populations that could sway the election; women have made up a majority of the electorate in every presidential election in the past 40 years, while Democrats usually win when young people turn out. Harris is currently winning with this population, but while some are celebrating the potential of a new leader who would be breaking several representational ceilings — the first female, Black woman and Asian president — many are still remaining guarded.
Kate, 27, asked to use a pseudonym because she isn’t proud of casting her vote for Harris. She feels that the vice president has failed to adequately address one of the most pressing issues for Kate — the relentless Israeli bombing of Palestine and Lebanon. “We have no leverage to stop genocide if she wins,” she said.
But she did end up casting her vote for the Democratic ticket.
“I heard it was going to be a close race and I didn’t want to be blamed if Trump won,” she said.
Arifi echoed these hesitations. “It’s obvious to us that we have to vote for Kamala Harris but it’s definitely something that clashes with our views,” she said. “We want someone who will dismantle the apartheid of Palestine — and it looks like neither candidate is willing to speak on genocide, and instead, fund it.”
Reproductive rights and increased policing in the city are also things that Arifi and her friends are most concerned about. Yang said her top issue was also reproductive rights. And while these women all voted, they don’t feel any shining optimism for the future. It seems that they’re waiting for the other shoe to drop.
“Not one woman who lived through 2016 is allowing herself to be fully excited right now. The body remembers,” one posted to X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday night.
It’s easy to understand the disillusionment. Whether it’s the discrepancy between the popular vote and the electoral college or ballots getting delayed or disqualified due to clerical issues, it’s easy to feel suspicious of the democratic process in this country before we even get to the threats that politicians have made against women’s rights in recent years, or the fact that the last election ended in an insurrection at the Capitol.
In the past few days alone, Trump has mimed giving a microphone a blowjob while his running mate, JD Vance, spent some of his airtime talking about the euthanisation of Instagram-famous squirrel Peanut. It’s hard not to want to bash your head into a wall when you think about the fact that these two men are asking to lead the country and the military. This is also our third time being in this position. Young women have spent their entire voting history just trying to keep Trump out of office, which is objectively a pretty sad way to experience democracy.
“You don’t vote yourself out of facism,” Kate said. “My expectations were already pretty low.”
Regardless, Arifi said she feels privileged to vote, propelled by her friends and family who are DACA [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] recipients and aren’t able to. And there’s more on the ballot than just the president. Yang said she’s more focused on researching the local law propositions now, as the descriptions can often be misleading. I asked her how she feels about Kamala Harris as a champion for her rights. She shrugged.
“Better than a man being the champion,” she said.
