Divided Communities: Voters Think About November 6
On November 6, only about 50% of Americans will wake up to election results they hoped for.
“I’m nervous. Anxious. Concerned about the level of division in out country,” said Jami Silar, a York resident who drove to Lancaster City on Sunday to attend Trump’s campaign event later that night. "I’m 51. It's never been like this, so it's a little upsetting to see how divided we are.”
November 5 is 13 days away. The nation is eager to see who will win the presidency. But, voters are also thinking about their communities in the weeks after.
“You always need to keep things civil,” said Gary, a Lancaster City resident. “Lot of my neighbors have Harris signs out. I will continue obviously to get along with my neighbors, and talk with them."
“That’s been my biggest concern. Living in Lancaster County, I have lifelong friends that we're not friends anymore because of the division,” said Andrew John Eichelberger, a veteran who plans to vote for Vice President Harris. "The division’s going to continue. It’s going to take cycles and cycles and cycles till we rebound from that."
For some, there is concern about safety because of division in the country.
“If the Democrat side is… I mean, look. Just in the last few years, their approach has been violence, and or the potential for violence, or the threat of violence,” said Gary. "And that's a little scary to me.”
Around noon, people were lining the blocks, waiting to get into the Trump campaign venue. One Harris Walz supporter, sporting a camo campaign hat, was hesitant to go on camera.
“Just because it's a little tense you know,” he said. When asked what his friend groups were thinking about going into the election— “It’s very divided."
Some Pennsylvanians spoke more on the day to day need to maintain relationship with their friends and neighbors… saying those with different opinions are rarely open to conversation.
“I want to have those conversations with the Trump supporters in my life. But I think a lot of times it's just, you know, shut down. Like we disagree and that's that,” said Julia Fechl, a Lancaster City resident out on a walk— sporting a tan, hippie-font Harris Walz campaign t-shirt.
“When we talk about facts, she doesn’t listen,” Sandy Dunn said, speaking of the one Harris supporter in her group of friends. “She refuses to see the other side like the people she watches and pays attention to are only people that give her the information that she wants to hear. So it's kind of frustrating.”
No matter who wins on November 5, Fechl says it is possible to bridge division.
"When I have conversations with people in my life who don't agree with me, once you can get past that sort of like visceral reaction of like— you know, we don't agree on this, on who we're voting for…” Fechl said. "I think when you start to unpack it and talk about it, there is a lot of the same sentiments from people.
“Like they're voting in different ways, but because they're having these same sort of gut reactions to things,” said Fechl.