Election day was long. Longer than even I thought it would be. On Tuesday, November 5, 2024 I first set out in the late morning, after the rush hour commuters had made their way to their jobs and the subway was not nearly as crowded. I knew there would not be much going on that early, but I thought I could get a feel for the mood of the city and see what was going on.
I headed to Trump Tower first, where I figured if there was anything going on, that would be the place. There were a handful of Trump supporters there, just down the block from the tower itself because of the ever-present police restrictions on things going on in front of the building. They were watched by a small handful of people as they passed by, but that was about it. So I slowly made my way down to Times Square, then back on the subway to Union Square and finally walked down to Washington Square Park.
People everywhere rushed by, as New Yorkers do. But one would get fleeting glimpses of “I Voted” stickers on their coats and shirts in the warm mid-day sun. Vendors along the way were selling both Trump and Harris merchandise, clearly trying to make some sales before one of the two stacks of hats and tee shirts were no longer sellable.
And while the parks were crowded in the unusually warm November weather, there was not a lot of energy. You could sense that people were not terribly excited about the results that would start rolling in later in the evening. It almost felt like the hope and excitement at the prospect of Haris and Waltz prevailing had had some of the air let out of it.
When I returned to Times Square around 7PM, the early results of the election were just starting to roll in. As usual, the area was full of tourists from all over the world, but scattered among them were regular New Yorker’s waiting to see the election results in on the screen outside the studios of ABC News on the corner of West 44th Street and 7th Avenue and the large electric billboards in the square that all had the results along with one for Kalshi, a website where people could bet and trade on the outcome which showed the results.
As the night wore on, and the counts flowed in, the mood of the crowd went from hopeful, to despondent. By the time I left after midnight, most people had gone home, as their next day of work was calling them to their beds and they knew what the final results would be when they woke up. The math was not hard to predict at that point.
But before things turned sour among the small crowd in Times Square, I was able to interview a small number of people to understand who they voted for, why they did it, and what was important in their minds while they cast their ballots.
Boris
“Honestly, this is what I think. I think Donald Trump could change the world from anywhere. Honestly, anywhere. He can go to Europe, he can go to Africa, and he’s going to make that place beautiful and he’s going to make the world beautiful. The reason he’s staying here, because this is his home and he loves people of America, and that’s why he’s fighting for all of us. And I feel like the thing is people need to understand that he’s a gift for us from God. God gave us Donald Trump to be here and make things beautiful from here, from America.”
Jim
“To us, it’s very clear. It’s about democracy itself. Number one, it’s about us handing off our country to our children and grandchildren with less rights if she’s not elected. Reproductive and women rights also key. But it really is about true democracy, and there’s no way that if you look at the record, you see a felon versus someone who’s really working for all of us instead of just for themselves. Now, that’s Harris.”
Steven
“So unlike a lot of people, I at least look at what each candidate tries to do, and I looked at myself and I said, ‘Okay, am I doing better now or was I doing better when Trump was in presidency?’ And I at least write everything down. So I did. Who’s who or pros and cons. Trump versus Kamala. Trump versus Kamala on every single issue that made sense to me. Look at myself right now. Look at the economy. Where was my life four years ago versus where my life is right now? Four years ago, I was making the best money I’ve ever had in my whole life. I had just got a promotion and now I am out of work. And according to my opinion, the economic policies of the current administration has been dog shit to me.”
Alex
“I think many of my people would have benefited from Kamala Harris’ immigration policy. I feel like she’s more on the side of the hard-working people than Donald Trump is. So he say it many times that he will carry out mass deportations and all that, and that will affect most of my people, especially from the State of California where I come from. So I am not necessarily against Trump, but his side on immigration, that is the main thing for me. That is one of the main, main, main things for me. So I feel like Democrats are more pro-immigrants, are more pro-hard-working people, and that is the reason I voted for Harris.”
Ally
“I voted for Hind Rajab. She is the five-year-old little girl who got killed by the Israeli Defense Forces with 355 bullets in Gaza while she was on the phone with her mom calling for help. So the first time in my life I did a protest vote. I’m a little older. I’ve been voting many, many times. I’m a staunch Democrat, never voted anything other than blue my whole life. Never will vote again blue or red. And yeah, so I did a protest vote today for Hind Rajab, five-year-old little Palestinian girl who was murdered by the I.D.F.”
Jana
“There are many reasons, but I think what sums it up is when Donald Trump says, ‘I’m going to protect woman, whether they like it or not.’ That tells me he’s going to do whatever he wants to anybody, whether we like it or not. And then the list goes on, and on, and on.”
