As general election results continue to roll in and the Electoral College breakdown begins to take shape, Penn students have expressed stress, sadness, and anxiety over the current distribution of votes.
The Daily Pennsylvanian spoke to several students about their feelings on the election results so far, especially in crucial battleground states that have been in the spotlight in recent months — including Pennsylvania.
Among ballots that have been counted, Trump is leading in the states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan as of 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday. Winning any two of those contests would clinch him the presidency, though votes will continue to be tabulated in the states throughout the night.
As of publication, the Associated Press had projected 1968 Wharton graduate and former President Donald Trump to win North Carolina and Georgia, with Wisconsin still too close to call.
College first year Santiago Cobarrubias told the DP that he was “feeling very anxious watching the results come in.”
“I just didn’t think that it would be this close. I felt like the Harris campaign had so much momentum in the past days,” he said, adding that he thought it would lead to better results in battleground states like Georgia, North Carolina, and Wisconsin.
“I’m sitting here, thinking about the ramifications of a Trump presidency on myself and my future children, because his policies will indeed last that long, and the Supreme Court justices he appoints will indeed live that long,” College first year Anvesha Guru — who is from Wisconsin — told the DP.
She said that some Wisconsin voters “are voting … in an uneducated manner, because they don’t even realize that the issues that truly matter to them are even on the ballot in this election,” noting that they may not recognize the full ramifications of a Trump presidency, especially on immigration issues.
College first year Clarence Guo told the DP that immigration policies “matter a lot” to him.
“If my family members aren’t able to go to the U.S. anymore, that’s a huge thing. The borders get closed, that’s a huge thing,” he said. “I think that all of these are completely possible under Trump.”
Guo added that he was “very bummed out” by the poll results so far, but that he is “going to continue watching coverage [and] stay until the end.”
College junior Deiya Pandya, who is originally from Florida — a state that the AP projected Trump to win earlier this evening — said that she was “a little distraught” by the results from her home state.
Pandya said that she was particularly upset over the results of the vote on Florida’s Referendum 4, which determined whether or not the right to an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy would be enshrined in the state’s constitution. As of publication, the measure was projected to fail by just 3% of the vote: Although it won the support of a majority of Florida voters, it did not cross the 60% threshold needed to pass state law, according to NBC.
Pandya told the DP that those results were “crushing to hear, considering how close the race is as well.”
However, she said she remains “cautiously optimistic” about the election on a national scale, but she also acknowledges the stress that going to school in the battleground state of Pennsylvania has caused.
“Being between two very contentious states has been pretty anxiety-inducing over the past two months,” Pandya said. “That being said, it also led me to try and be more proactive about getting involved [in voting efforts this semester].”
Cobarrubias added that “being in the most consequential swing state in America” has added to his election-related stress.
“It’s kind of all up to us,” he said.
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