America on edge: How voters are dealing with election stress

The US electorate seems to be on edge: Worried how the country will look should their preferred candidate lose. Worried the other side will make trouble. Worried the political divide will only grow deeper.

Bellevue, Pennsylvania: Danielle Trenney, a 39-year-old project manager from western Pennsylvania, is so anxious about the US presidential election on Tuesday that she decided to put up a Christmas tree early this year to take her family’s mind off things.

Trenney said she knew of other families doing the same in Bellevue, a Pittsburgh suburb and an electoral hotbed prized by both Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, rivals in a race that analysts say will go down to the wire.

“Just trying to pacify the anxiety,” said Trenney, who voted for Harris ahead of Tuesday's Election Day. "Anything and everything to distract from, 'Oh my God, what's going to happen?'"

Sitting on a park bench nearby was Jennifer Bunecke, 68 and a retired graphic designer who plans to vote for Trump. Bunecke is so sick of the acrimony, the incessant calls from pollsters and the campaign ads bombarding her in the battleground state of Pennsylvania that she would rather tune out completely.

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She spent a chunk of Saturday reading a booklet of pastry recipes to keep calm. "I was never into politics. I wasn't raised with it," she said.

On Election Eve, America is stressed out. Like really. Faced with two radically different candidates and visions for the country's future, voters are girding themselves for the results - and fear of the possible unrest that could follow.

In recent days Reuters correspondents spoke to more than 50 voters across the seven competitive states that will determine the next president. They encountered an electorate on edge: Worried how the country will look should their preferred candidate lose. Worried the other side will make trouble. Worried the political divide will only grow deeper.

Some are turning to religion, others to yoga, swimming or lifting weights. Some are following the news closely, while others have shut off their TVs and smartphones to lose themselves in books or take long walks outdoors.

“I wish my smartphone was smart enough to know I’ve already voted,” said Lynn Nicholson, 72, a Harris voter in Marietta, Georgia, who has found refuge from the deluge of campaign ads through walking, gardening and photography. "It’s overwhelming."

Todd Harrison, 49, of Canton, Georgia, a pest control specialist who is leaning toward Trump, said he has stopped watching sports on TV because of the barrage of political ads.

“The closer I get to the election, the madder I get,” Harrison said.

Fears of unrest

Many voters said they worried about what could happen after the election, especially if Trump loses. They fear a wave of lawsuits and court hearings, demonstrations, even violence.

Trump claims the only way Democrats can win is by cheating. Harris has said she is ready to confront Trump if he prematurely declares victory.

Sherry Gay-Dagnogo, a 57-year-old Harris supporter in Detroit, said she is concerned about what Trump's incendiary rhetoric could provoke.

"It's like he's igniting a base of violence in advance," she said. "It's scary."

But Lillian Hall, a 68-year-old former teacher and retail store owner from Hendersonville, North Carolina, and a Trump supporter, said she was scared there would be rioting if Harris loses.

“I think there'll be anger like we've not seen yet if Trump wins,” Hall said.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted last month found widespread worries that the U.S. could see a repeat of the unrest that followed Trump's 2020 election defeat, when the then-president's false claim that his loss was the result of fraud prompted hundreds of followers to storm the U.S. Capitol.

Some 74% of registered voters who responded to the Oct. 16-21 survey said they were concerned extremists would commit acts of violence if they were unhappy with the election results. Democrats were most likely to think that: 90 per cent of them agreed compared with 64 per cent of Republicans and 77 per cent of independents.

A few voters said in interviews they were trying to channel their anxieties by helping to get out the vote for their candidate.

Shirley Easton, an 85-year-old Tucson, Arizona, resident who described her mental state as “scared out of my mind,” said she had been mailing postcards to persuade people to vote for Harris.

Easton said she feared for the future of her seven granddaughters after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 reversed its landmark Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.

“For my grandchildren, I’m very afraid," she said.

Lisa Fields, 60, a marketing professional, was so concerned that she traveled from her Manhattan home on Saturday to knock on doors for Trump in Delaware County, a critical suburb of Philadelphia.

She hopes Trump will bring peace to the Middle East and the country becomes more unified regardless of the victor.

“We need to come together for the greater good. And I'll focus on that the day after, because while I disagree with people voting the other way, they're entitled to and that's the beauty of America,” Fields said.

Other voters said they were trying to disengage from the election as much as possible.

Jean Thomson, 63, an executive coach in Marietta, Georgia, who voted for Harris, said the dozens of political flyers that arrive in the mail go straight into her trash.

“I don’t even look at them," she said, adding she was meditating and spending more time in nature to cope with her stress.

Not everyone was headed to the woods.

When the results start rolling in on Tuesday, "I will be watching with my Xanax and my bottle of sauvignon blanc," said Gillian Marshall, a 55-year-old Lyft driver in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Marshall, a Democrat who said she voted for Harris, echoed a sentiment nearly universal across the political divide.

"I just want this nightmare to be over."