November 8th is here and that means the future of America is being decided by every ballot casted in America today.
The Lafayette County Health Department located at 101 Center Ridge Rd was a popular location for citizens casting their vote early this morning. Many people were already in line before 7:00 a.m. but once the doors opened at 6:59 a.m. people began flooding in to get a spot in the steadily growing line.
“I wanted to be the first person in my polling section to vote. Yes, I’ve been up since 4:30am. Yes, I was here reading by flashlight at one point. So, yes, I was here before a lot of the actual poll workers.” said Kenneth Jones, a sociology teacher at North West.
Whether in line to get the voting process over with or in line because of pure excitement many men and women of Lafayette county came early to exercise their right to vote.
“ I mean I think that it’s been an interesting election for sure. I don’t wanna say that I’m glad it’s over, I mean I’m glad that we are getting to exercise our rights that we do for the beauty of our government every four years, for president, and every couple of years and all for different down ballot raises and so am I glad it’s over, maybe but I don’t know that I have strong feelings either way on that part.” said Micheal Cherry, a staff member at The University of Mississippi.
The election process has been going on now for a little over a year with positives and negatives along the journey, same as every year, but the election process of 2016 has been a shock to most citizens of the United States.
“ As a sociologist and historian, I can tell you this one has been nasty, I mean this, I mean a certain amount of political debate and fighting is the norm but this has been exceptional” says Jones, “I have been voting since 2000 and this is the first time I can remember presidential election commercials on Mississippi television. It’s the first time I can remember that so that uh, that’s been interesting there has really been a, you know, full country blanket effort to get voters from every where so it seems like a lot of states have been sorta swing states because you know, I don’t know if people know this but if you follow the polls, for a while there in the Summer, Hillary Clinton had like 30 to 40% chance of winning Mississippi, which is basically unheard of in the modern age for a democrat to come even that close.”
Technology and some media outlets have made it far to easy for people to receive only the information they want to hear rather than both sides of every story.
“ I do watch the news and I do get frustrated on both sides. There is a lot of bias in the news these days, um it doesn’t matter if you turn on CNN, if you turn on Fox even now these days if you turn on MSNBC they’re just as bias too, so I am ready for that to be over not that it will end. I feel like this is just the beginning um I think for, how ever it ends, I think Donald Trump and Hillary both they’ll still be a lot of controversy so I don’t know if it’ll end but it will, the controversy, decline a little bit” said Dylan Lewis, a student at The University of Mississippi.
Whoever one decides to vote for is their constitutional right yet some people have let another persons opinion bother them so much as to delete friends from their life.
“ I read that up to 7% of Americans polled have ended a friendship because of this election so I would personally hope that once this is done hopefully some way can be found for everyone to just sort of, you know kinda like, you know you fight with your family at Thanksgiving and by Christmas you try to get it all together again, that would be my hope” says Jones, “ regardless of your political affiliation I would hope that we could ultimately sorta get on with it.”
Everyone voting today feels there candidate is the way to go and the other one is not. Even if the candidate they are voting for today was the candidate they were voting for at the beginning of the race, the controversy of this race has caused most to feel very strongly for or against each candidate.
“ Not to say who I am voting for, but I am voting on the right side of history today, I am voting for the people, I’m voting for um everyone, to make sure everyone feels like they have an opportunity, a chance here in our country because that’s what we are founded on” said Lewis.
Even at 7:00 a.m in the morning on the day of the 2016 Presidential Election, Oxonians are thinking of how the end of this journey will go, despite the outcome of the ballots.
“ In Mississippi, I feel that we know who will win here, I think overall it’s going to come down to those swing states those battle ground states that they really fought hard in the last couple of days, both sides have been very active in those states so I don’t know it’s going to be interesting to see who pulls it out, I mean I think that we know who will win or I hope we know who will win but again it’s going to come down to those battle ground states” said Lewis.
Cherry says, “ I think it could go either way, I don’t know that I would say that I am nervous about the results. I mean the results are going to be what they are and I hope that who ever is the losing side, if we’re talking about the presidential election, is willing to work towards reconciliation and a better country that’s what I would hope in any election.”
In roughly less than 24 hours our country will have elected its new president for the next four to eight years and there will not be an opportunity to turn back the clock. Every one registered has the opportunity to get their voice heard whether your candidate comes out on top or not. The election process is over but citizens have until 7:00 p.m. to have their voice heard.
“I am very glad it is over, I feel this election has created a lot of tension amongst people and I am kind of ready for that to be over. “ said Lewis.
Kaitlyn Collins