Excited and unnerved: New Yorkers flood the polls on US Election Day

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New York City, US – As the sun rose over the five boroughs of New York City on Tuesday morning, a certain unspoken unease permeated the crisp autumn air.

New Yorkers — both supporters of former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris — flooded polling places early on November 5 as voters in the United States began to duke it out at the ballot box.

For some, it was a chance to dismantle the status quo. For many, it was the election of a lifetime.

New York City is a Democratic stronghold. In 2020, it voted overwhelmingly against Trump, helping to deliver current President Joe Biden a critical election victory.

But each of the five boroughs has its own personality, and the pockets of voters that make up New York City paint a much more complicated picture of this year’s presidential race.

In the blue-collar neighbourhood of Ridgewood, part of the westernmost borough of Queens, 36-year-old hairstylist Adrianne Kuss expressed anxiety about the election’s eventual outcome.

“I feel nervous,” Kuss told Al Jazeera moments after casting her vote for Harris on Tuesday morning. “Nobody should be on the fence… Too many things are at stake.”

Sporting pink hair with matching pink sunglasses, cargo pants and boots, Kuss added that the prospect of another Trump presidency frightened her.

The Republican candidate has pledged to be a dictator “for day one” if re-elected on Tuesday. Kuss also pointed out that Trump has made numerous anti-transgender and anti-immigrant comments.

“As a German American, I got this thing about fascism,” Kuss explained.

“I’m concerned about his racism, about his misogyny. But also, he is old and senile and out of touch. He’s not someone who represents New Yorkers. I mean, honestly, he’s this silver-spoon idiot.”

She pointed to the events 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 called the results a fraud.

“I don’t want this cultish mob rearing its ugly head again,” Kuss explained. “That was absolutely terrifying. In 2020, when the insurrection happened, people’s lives were literally at risk. I don’t want to see that again.”

Queens, however, is Trump’s home borough: He was born and raised in the area, and his family’s real estate business was anchored there.

Traditionally, the borough turns out a higher proportion of voters — specifically white voters — for the former president and real estate billionaire than other pockets of the city.

In 2020, for instance, Trump carried over 26 percent of the vote in Queens, a higher number than in Brooklyn, Manhattan or the Bronx but lower than in Staten Island.

The Republican continues to have sway in areas of Queens like Ridgewood, a working-class, blue-collar neighbourhood where many Polish, German and Albanian voters live.

Retired Queens teacher Alice Kokasch, 83, is one of Trump’s supporters. Kokasch, who voted for the Republican leader in 2016 and 2020, said she had no qualms about sending Trump back to the Oval Office — despite his 34 felony convictions last May.

“He didn’t do anything that bad,” Kokasch told Al Jazeera outside Public School 88, where she taught and went to school. It had been transformed into a polling site for Tuesday’s race.

Kokasch said that, whatever Trump’s personal failings, they were no dealbreaker. “He’s not perfect, but who is, right?”

Brian, a 28-year-old Latino immigrant in Queens, also voted for Trump. Likewise, he was unfazed by Trump’s scandals and criminal history: Last year, the Republican leader became the first US president ever to face criminal charges.

“Honestly, it doesn’t bother me,” Brian, who also declined to give his name out of fear of retribution, told Al Jazeera.

“Nobody’s perfect, and I just look more towards what can he do for his country rather than his prior felony cases. I do acknowledge that that did happen. And, of course, that’s not a good look on anybody. But, you know, nobody’s perfect.”

For Brian, a customer service worker, Trump’s economic record was a mighty pull at the ballot box.

“I believe he’s the right candidate for us,” Brian said. “While he was in power, I felt like the economy was on the right track.”

Still, Brian acknowledged that Trump may not accept the election results if Harris inches ahead of him in the tight presidential race.

“Most likely not,” Brian said with a chuckle. “I know he won’t accept.”

Another voter in Queens, David, a 30-year-old construction worker with a mild European accent, also voted for Trump on Tuesday alongside his father. He declined to give his last name out of fear his political leanings could affect the family business.

Like many Trump supporters, he cited the high inflation under outgoing President Joe Biden as a motivation for his vote.

“The economy’s going to sh**,” David said. “Everything is up. Inflation is at an all-time high. I think it’s time to drain the swamp. What more can I say?”

With wars ongoing in Ukraine, Gaza and Lebanon, he also expressed fears that the US could be dragged into a new conflict under further Democratic leadership.

“Countless wars…,” David said, trailing off. “They want our troops to go out there and kill while they’re dining somewhere in Washington, DC, eating steak dinners.”

For him, a Harris win was inconceivable — and he echoed the unfounded election fraud claims that Trump has spread ahead of Tuesday’s election, seeking to undermine a potential Democratic victory.

“There’s a lot of spooky stuff going on,” David told Al Jazeera, citing a conspiracy theory that thousands of ballots had been hijacked off an 18-wheeler in Pennsylvania. “I’m not accepting the results.”

South of Queens, in the more left-leaning borough of Brooklyn, public sentiment was slightly different.

In Williamsburg, Brooklyn, a woman walking her dog and toting a yoga mat hugged a friend as the pair lined up to enter a polling station on North 5th Street.

Nearby, Brooklyn artist James Kennedy, 46, who wore a tie-dye hat with a blue Kamala pin, posed for a selfie. He told Al Jazeera he was feeling the weight of the moment.

“[I feel] pretty nervous,” Kennedy said. “I don’t know, man. It’s tough. I just wish we could all just get along again, you know? But I don’t know if it’s going to happen, but we’ll see. I just hope positivity wins over negativity.”

The divisive presidential cycles of the last decade had left him feeling depleted, he explained. Nevertheless, Kennedy, a longtime registered Democrat, said his choice was clear: He would vote for Harris. There was no way he could support Trump’s behaviour and policies.

“The way this man acts, it’s just unpresidential,” the artist said of Trump.

Kennedy, particularly, had been troubled by the undoing of Roe v Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that had previously protected the right to abortion access.

Trump has boasted on the campaign trail that it was the judges he appointed to the court that made Roe’s demise possible. In 2022, after Roe was overturned, many states took the opportunity to implement restrictions on abortion rights — if not ban the procedure entirely.

Kennedy fears further draconian laws could be imposed if Republicans seize the White House again.

“I think that’s just really what’s so important right now,” he added. “But I just think it’s ridiculous that we even have to have [that conversation].”

Across the water, in the island borough of Manhattan, polling sites in the Harlem neighbourhood drew scores of primarily African American voters.

Many were eager to cast votes for Vice President Harris, who would be the first Black woman elected to the White House if successful in Tuesday’s race.

One polling site at EM Moore Public Housing drew 98-year-old lifelong Harlem resident Eula Dalton, who walked arm-in-arm with her daughter, Rose Dalton, to the polls.

“It was beautiful,” Eula Dalton said of this year’s voting process.

Both mother and daughter likened the moment to Barack Obama’s stunning 2008 presidential win. Obama became the first non-white person ever to lead the country.

Rose, a court reporter, travelled from Connecticut to ensure her mother, who struggles with early onset dementia, could exercise her right to vote.

“I knew I wanted to bring her,” Rose said, explaining that it was difficult for Eula to vote without assistance. “She’s been inactive since Obama, I believe, because, you know, back then, she was probably 16 years younger. She was more aware.”

But the Election Day energy in Harlem was “awesome”, Rose said, calling it a monumental moment in American politics. She predicted Harris would win in a “landslide”.

“Boy, let’s wait till tonight,” she said. “We know it’s historic. It’s very historic.”

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