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    • Voters anxiously await the outcome of the presidential race
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    Voters anxiously await the outcome of the presidential race

    Online Niel Posted on

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    The the most divisive presidential campaign in modern memory ended Tuesday night without a clear winner it was expected to be known immediately as millions of anxious Americans braced for what was to come.

    Election officials said it could be several days before it is known whether Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris or former Republican President Donald Trump won.

    Meanwhile, in Rhode Island, with 93% of the vote by 8:45 p.m., Harris beat Trump50.1% to 45.9%, according to the unofficial results of the Electoral Council.

    A Republican had not won Rhode Island since 1984, when incumbent Ronald Reagan won re-election in a landslide. In 2020, Joe Biden carried Rhode Island 59.4% to Trump’s 38.6%.

    Four years ago on election night, Trump saw his early lead in the count erased as more votes were tabulated, triggering his false claims that the election had been stolen from him.

    Despite the fact that judges across the country and across the political spectrum have rejected his challenges, his continued insistence that the nation’s election process is rigged has taken root with many Republicans in this campaign and bothered many Democrats, who see his demagoguery as a blatant attempt to undermine faith in the democratic process. .

    The small middle ground among voters

    “I think there’s a lot of people who won’t accept the outcome if he loses, and that’s not the case historically,” said Erick Watson, 62, of Providence, as he voted early at City Hall. “Now it’s, ‘If we lose, we’ll litigate later. Nonsense.”

    Dan Lorraine, a 38-year-old Trump supporter who votes in Johnston, said if the former president doesn’t win, he may question the outcome.

    “There’s some sketchy stuff going on,” he said, noting how The US Department of Justice sued Virginia last month for removing about 1,600 suspected non-citizens from its voting rolls. (Virginia’s action was illegal, the Justice Department said, because it came too close to an election and some of the alleged noncitizens were legal citizens.)

    “Honestly, I think either way, it’s going to be pretty bad,” said Lorraine, a purchasing manager for a medical device company. “I won’t say civil war, but a lot of riots.”

    Many Republican voters said they elected Trump because they favor his economic plan to lower the cost of living, close the southern border and end the nation’s involvement in foreign wars.

    Harris “was there for almost four years and did nothing for us,” said Phyllis Gelsomino, 76, of Johnston. “Suddenly she’s worried about rising prices. The price drop has been going on since they (Democrats) got in there.”

    Democrats have portrayed Trump as a danger to democracy, who sought to reverse his defeat in 2020 and fueled the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol.

    “I see Trump trying to undermine the (voting) process as a way for him to challenge the outcome” if he loses, said Iveta Madden, 59, of Providence. “I have worked on surveys before. There is no malice. with people at the polls, the manipulation of ballots does not happen.

    In Newport Tuesday morning, Jill Lepore-Oylers walked into the polling booth at the public library pushing her 2-year-old daughter, Piper, in a stroller: “I had to bring my daughter to vote for the first woman president “.

    Lepore-Oylers said her vote for Kamala Harris was deeply personal. Her daughter is an “IVF baby”, born after she suffered a miscarriage in her first pregnancy, which required her to have a life-saving abortion.

    “If I didn’t have an abortion, I wouldn’t be here, she wouldn’t be here,” Lepore-Oylers said. “Everybody says, the economy, the economy, the economy. But the economy can come back. Once you lose rights, it’s hard to get them back.”

    Concerns about the integrity of elections

    Across the state, where communities saw large numbers of early voters, officials said some expressed concern about the safety of their ballots.

    “There’s definitely more commentary about the integrity of the (voting) machines,” said Scituate canvasser Gloria Taylor, who picked Trump over Joe Biden by 16 percent in 2020.

    Some voters were asking poll workers, “Will my ballot be altered? “Is the machine going to erase my vote?” Taylor said, “just because of the type of election we’re having.”

    Election results: Here is how the RI General Assembly races are shaping up so far

    In Woonsocket, some voters have been reluctant to go to the polls because of acts of bullying they’ve seen publicized in other states, said Giana Savastano, manager of the Board of Aldermen. Ballot boxes were set on fire in Washington and Oregon last week.

    In swing states where polls have shown razor-thin margins separating Harris from Trump, Savastano said, “I think we can expect protests after the election, really, no matter which way we go.”

    “It’s just supercharged by what we’ve seen in the last four years,” social media misinformation fanning the flames of doubt in the American electoral process, she said. “I think social media after this election will be just as loud as it has been, if not louder.”

    Regardless of what happens in other states, Savastano said election workers in Woonsocket and Rhode Island are working hard to alleviate voters’ concerns with the process here:

    “We’ll be able to look them in the eye and tell them we made the right choices.”

    Rhode Island Congressional Races:

    US House of Representatives

    In sector 1, Democratic U.S. Representative Gabe Amo defeated Republican Allen R. Waters, 59 percent to 35.2 percent.

    In sector 2incumbent Democrat Seth Magaziner defeated Republican Steven Corvi, 54.5 percent to 45.2 percent.

    US Senate

    Democratic incumbent Sheldon Whitehouse defeated Republican Patricia Morgan, 56.3 percent to 43.4 percent.

    With staff reports.

    Online Niel
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