Pictured above: South Hadley High School in South Hadley, MA. Photo courtesy of WikiMedia.
By Declan Langton ’22
Managing Editor of Content
Whether lined up outside of the public library or following the signs to a ballot dropbox, South Hadley voters participating in the 2020 presidential election have seen processes greatly adjusted to fit the new standards required in a pandemic.
In a video released by the South Hadley Office of the Town Clerk, Registrar Nicole Casolari spoke on behalf of the department explaining the new protocols for the election. While the town continued to offer the option to vote in person at South Hadley High School on Nov. 3, other avenues were also created for citizens to participate. Early voting began Oct. 17 at the South Hadley Public Library and the application for mail-in ballots was open until Oct. 28. Voters who decided to mail their ballots were also able to bring them to a dropbox behind the police station, according to Casolari.
At the high school, “in an effort to make the experience safer and more comfortable for our voters, precincts will be separated to four different entrances and voting will take place in different spaces within the school,” Casolari said. Feedback from poll workers after the September primary elections also inspired adjustments to the setups. Poll workers, according to Casolari, mentioned not being able to hear through the plexiglass barriers set up by the town as coronavirus shields. Because of this, voters are now being asked to come with their ID or their name and street address written on a piece of paper to ease communication. “This is not a requirement,” Sasolari stressed.
South Hadley resident Nathalie Vicencio was impressed with South Hadley’s voting setup. “It was great,” she said. “I voted early to avoid large crowds and traffic. … The town did an excellent job providing ample space between the voting booths and disinfecting after each person was done. Everyone wore masks and there was hand sanitizer.”
Vicencio, a housing counselor and social justice activist, has lived in South Hadley for more years than she can count. This was her first time voting in a presidential election because she has recently become an American citizen. “It felt empowering, as it’s an additional contribution to my community,” she said. “I’ve already been paying taxes since I was 15 years old, but voting in this election was especially important to me and my family.”
This was also a landmark election for resident Kathy Chirstal-McDonald. “I’m 61, and this is the most important election of my lifetime,” she said. “I and a few friends worry that it could be our last time voting if [President Donald Trump] wins again.”
Chirstal-McDonald, who grew up in Northampton, has been surprised by the more conservative viewpoints she has heard in South Hadley and the Pioneer Valley leading up to the election. “I’ve always thought of the Valley as a bubble of liberals, and obviously I’m wrong,” she said.
The pandemic has also shaped the political climate, according to Chirstal-McDonald, who shared a story of recent street harassment. “I went for a walk in my neighborhood a few weeks ago and someone yelled out their window at me, something along the lines of, ‘What a good little sheep.’ I had a mask in my hand just in case. It was shocking to me and so disheartening,” she said. Additionally, Chirstal-McDonald said the Facebook community page became so full of “conflict and hate” that the administrators had to shut down posts talking about the pandemic. “[COVID 19] is so divisive,” she said. “I've never seen science be a question of opinion this way.”
Vicencio also thinks of this election as representing a larger societal conflict. “It’s a conservative versus liberal war,” she said. “At this point, this country can no longer hide the injustices that have been committed against all kinds of people, especially oppressed and marginalized people. The only way forward is by coming together to put an end to the blatant abuse that the obscenely rich people are committing against everyone else and the environment.”
Vicencio continued,“Hate, bullying [and] harassment are not the values we should pursue as U.S. citizens. We need to refocus on the things that matter which is making sure we have access to affordable healthy housing, health care that does not involve bargaining between paying for heat or paying for premiums, affordable education, healthy foods free of pesticides and pollutants and surviving this [COVID 19] pandemic,.”
Mount Holyoke Professor and Chair of French Catherine LeGouis and her husband Brian Carter, a former faculty member at Yale University, are both residents of South Hadley. The two voted in person on Nov. 3.
“It seemed as if that is the most reliable way for our vote to be counted,” LeGouis said. Despite deciding to vote in this way, they remained wary of potential Election Day crowds.
LeGouis and Carter spent Monday working out when they would go vote to avoid the majority of lines. “We are older people,” LeGouis explained. “We don’t want to get exposed to the virus so we are being very careful to minimize exposure.”
“I’m looking forward to it,” Carter said about voting. “I assume it’s going to go very calm and smoothly. … There may be some trouble somewhere. There isn’t going to be any trouble in South Hadley.” He emphasized that the only tangible difference for this election will be masks and social distancing.
Despite incidents like what Chirstal-McDonald faced, Carter remained confident that the election itself would run smoothly, especially in South Hadley, where former Vice President Joe Biden is sure to win.
South Hadley’s largely Democratic leanings were shown in the 2020 primary elections. There were 4,264 votes cast for president on the Democrat primary ticket as opposed to the 793 cast on the Republican primary ticket. Biden won the primary in South Hadley with 1,374 votes with Senator Bernie Sanders following closely at 1,190.
Carter likened this election to the nervous buildup leading to Y2K when many were worried that a computer glitch was going to bring down the internet. “Everyone was scared and it turned out to be absolutely nothing,” he said. He remains confident about this in South Hadley specifically, where the only contested race on the ballot is the race for president.
“It’s a Democratic town. It’s a college town in Massachusetts,” Carter said. He also argued that even in small towns that could vote Democratic or Republican, there shouldn’t be any literal conflict at the polls. “Most places in the United States are like South Hadley, … even the ones that are [in] contested [places],” Carter said. “There are little towns in Indiana and little towns in Massachusetts that the Republicans might win. But [everyone knows] each other. And they don’t have the animosity. They run these elections together for decades, and I would be astounded if there is a big problem around here.”
There are some worries about a peaceful transition of power as launched by Trump’s confusing comments in a conversation with journalist Chris Wallace that he wouldn’t necessarily believe the results of the election and may resist the outcome. LeGouis didn’t voice immediate concern about this. Like Biden, she wasn’t entirely sure how Trump would try to hold power after January, hoping that other governmental organizations would step in. “Someone has to be the grown-up and it’s not going to be Trump,” she said.
Carter, though still confident the transition will happen, is less sure about the process for ensuring it. “Trump has run politics like he ran his business,” he said. “You bluster, you bring out your lawyers, you stiff your contractors and when they object you just hit them with one lawsuit after another and finally they back down. Trump thinks like that, I think, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he makes a fuss, but it won’t get anywhere.” Carter does believe, however, that Trump cannot stop the votes from being counted because elections are conducted by states and localities.
Regarding vote counting, Carter and LeGouis are wary of the numbers and of potential victories declared on Tuesday night or Wednesday. “The mail-in ballots will be taking longer to count and the Republicans will probably be voting in person more than the Democrats, so there may be a delay as they count,” LeGouis said.
Carter related this to the “blue wave” and the “red rush.” “The red rush is the fact that the Republicans are voting in person more than the Democrats, so their votes get counted first and that’s why everyone has been saying, left and right and center, expect that at least for the first part of the night and maybe into Wednesday … Trump is going to lead. But as the mail-in votes get tabulated, he’s going to lose, and there’s really no way he’s going to be able to stop the count,” Carter detailed.
The future of both parties after this election remains uncertain. Even with a Trump loss, LeGouis believes he will continue to control the Republican Party. “The base has a very strong attachment to him,” she said. “Even if he is in jail, he will continue to own the Republican Party.”
For LeGouis, the future of the Democratic Party hinges on if they take the Senate and Biden’s possible efficacy as a president. Additionally, if the Democrats do not take the Senate and Mitch McConnell (R-KY) continues to be the majority leader, Carter believes the recession will continue and the country will blame it on Biden.
“It’s probably more likely that the Democrats take the Senate and McConnell becomes the minority leader and [is] no longer in charge of blocking everything then that he loses,” he said. As of Nov. 4, the Democrats and Republicans each have 48 Senate seats with 4 left up for grabs in races in Alaska, North Carolina and Georgia.
In Hampshire County, Biden is the predicted winner with an estimated 65 percent of votes counted. Detailed information on South Hadley will be released by the Town Clerk in the following days.