8-9 am
woke up before the alarm. It’s all quiet, only roomtone and closed curtains.
9-10 am
breakfast and live news from Texas, Florida and New York. emails and WhatsApp and instagram trying to make sure I have a flight home and a job when I get there
10-11 am
sat on a bench by a voting site, talked to the three volunteers. One of them got hit by a bird poo. Spirits were high and multiple voters expressed their surprise to there being absolutely no line.
11 am -12 pm
12-1 pm
making my way through Central Park towards a library/poll on 53rd. As I walk I remove my jacket and tie it around my waist. It’s November 5th and a man in shorts and a t shirt is ice skating in the south side of the park. Half the ice rink is marked with green cones warning not to skate there; the area is covered in melted ice. I can’t remember if either candidate has mentioned climate crisis or emissions or sustainable energy. My podcast is letting me know of the women-targeted Julia Roberts-ad saying “what happens in the polls stay in the polls” . Weather forecast says 72 degrees at 3 pm.
1-2 pm
new york public library
the woman in front of me is wearing an I VOTED badge, not a sticker, which makes me think she’s more involved than most
the pen she’s using to work on her touch screen ipad is also a US election 2024-pen
the sign right in front of me, on the grey concrete wall reads
VOTE HERE
<—
VOTE AQUÍ
and someone in a serious suit just walked in
a young woman, younger than I first thought actually, has a sticker on her backpack and it says FUTURE VOTER so I guess she’s not old enough yet
she’s got beautiful pink glitter on her eyelids and has an expensive looking ipad she’s reading from
she seems like someone I’d rather put my trust in than the guy in the serious suit
her nose ring calms me a bit and she’s putting her hands in the opposite ends of sleeves, like she’s cold and wants to snug herself, and I’d rather she was the upcoming president
two women exited, verbally excited about something it seems like they were given after voting – it looks like they’re nail files. Saying something I can’t read on the back, but I can guess. Doesn’t seem like a guess – everyone’s out to tell the world that they voted. I assume there will be more and more stickers during this day. A woman just accidentally asked students in the quiet zone about voting and were redirected to the man behind the desk next to the polive woman in full uniform. People are looking me in the eye here, smiling (back) at me, it’s like we’re all in it together. They don’t know I can’t vote. They assume I have or that I will. Could I get a sticker if I wanted to? Probably not. I think days like these are really good days for social media to exist. Let them know you voted. Don’t forget to vote. “don’t be a dipshit today. Vote for kamala harris.” Earlier today, when I was at the other voting poll, I overheard the volunteers discussing whether or not mark Ruffalo would come to visit on that specific site. Their shifts are all day, so if he gets there they’ll know. A man brought his dog and walked straight by the man behind the desk. The man laughed silently, shook his head and made eye contact with me. Not sure if he thought it was madness to bring a dog without asking or if he just thought the dog was cute, like everybody here seems to think most dogs are fantastic. At the other poll site, the volunteers offered to watch the dog while the owner voted. The voter put said “I don’t see a trash can so ill put this here for now,” leaving a filled green bag of dog poop on the ground next to the dog. “don’t wanna bring a bag of poop to vote,” she laughed, entered, voted, exited, thanked and left. Its quiet at the library, but there’s clearly a large amount of people behind that wall. I can hear maybe 20-30 voices, calm, explaining, asking, thanking. A guy with a lanyard exits. A woman too, saying “thank you, this is so fun!” and walks by me with a half full dunkin’ donuts ice coffee, a nail file and a sticker on her chest. Polls have been open for 7 hours 13 minutes.
“it could be such a turning point for this country. Such a turning point. If he loses, he’s not gonna run again. What a terrible person he is. What a disgrace to the human race. What a disgrace. It’s a beautiful library”
2-3 pm
been drawing last week: main themes are Halloween, marathon and early voting. Is it a bit overwhelming to live in a city where these things all happen within the span of 5 days?
Cnn radio: “Turnout so far very very strong, we’ve been seeing long lines. From Philadelphia Pennsylvania: He expects the vote counting to go faster than in 2020. The voters know that this is a battleground state, that they’re gonna have a REAL say on who’s winning. Women’s rights, moral in general. My main concern is the economy, putting the United States first before any other country. It was smooth, in and out within 5 minutes with me. The line was around the corner so I came back a little later. Good process. They may have. It come out and votes if they hadn’t known this was a battleground state and every vote was important.”
3-4 pm
walking into a poll site but not a lot to see there
4-5 pm
5-6 pm
dinner and planning where to go with friends, wore my bestest bluest outfit and made a grilled cheese to go, ate it before I reached the c train to take me to the pub in fort greene. I’ve been told the vibe is a party, we’ll see, I’m ready to drink and roar and forget as long as it’s with other people, we’ll see if the party continues or falls flat through the ground, and I’ve been told that it’ll never be a party because nobody is excited about her either, it’s a choice between bad and worse but maybe my friends are wrong and right now I’m hopeful, I’m remembering the joy she was talking about, maybe I’ll fall flat through the ground but right now I’m wearing all blue and feel like I’m about to go to the finale of bachelorette just with different content and I know I’m wrong but let me have this for this one hour
6-7 pm
7-8 pm
8-9 pm
friend explaining what’s happening at the moment
9-10 pm
10-11 pm
fighting about America, the beauty and the genocide, the disregard and the conversation, yelling, beers and outside the venue, I don’t want to eavesdrop, I’ve got beers, leaving to where I can’t hear their words but only sounds, it’s not my place to intrude this hundred year long discussion or I’m not brave enough to
11 pm – 12 am
I’ve been accidentally locked out, I’m sitting with my back against the door trying to keep my hope up but almost every state is red and he’s winning by 1 or 200.000 votes in each, it’s tiny, the difference, on this scale, I have an open beer and a closed one meant for someone else but they’re still fighting, I think, somethings going on away from my hearing distance and something else is going on inside this building that I no longer have access to to, the next polls close in 46:43 and I think they’re the last ones, maybe just Hawaii, trumps in the lead but I’ve been told the west coast will shift it all around but when I look at the numbers it seems that they need one or two extra states in order to reach a majority of any, I’m not sure I understand this, or that it’s real?
I checked the group chat and it seems like they’re experiencing the same thing
Is it this really it?
12-1 am
1-2 am
6+6+15+ Michigan is stressful
2-3 am
Friend left and now it’s me and other friend, on the curb, in the bar, someone paid for their drink and then they paid for mine, everyone’s got their hands in the praying format in front of their mouths
3-4 am
cigarettes and really good conversations, music like there’s no disaster,
4-5 am
“we are a very interesting experiment” (USA) – on the a train heading home. Drunk but not very, soar throat of cigarettes, coping with everything, fights and division and dancing on the barstool and almost crying and freezing and mixing and debating and reassuring and now, giving up, how can she count to 270 I don’t think there’s a way if you add them all, the remaining, what the fuck happened to Pennsylvania, this was Fulton street and I’ll be home in 20 minutes
5-6 am
