Jacqueline Wallace/The Rider Photo Illustration
Jacqueline Peraza | EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
With the official 2020 presidential election results pending, UTRGV faculty and students voiced similar opinions about Election Day anxiety and waiting for results.
David Bowles, a literature and cultural studies associate professor and English Education Program coordinator, said he is an avid voter and has stayed updated with the election results since Tuesday.
“I have been checking intermittently, just, like, leaving the television on … with the sound muted so that while I’m working, I can look to the left and see the TV and see what’s going on,” Bowles said.
He said watching the numbers update is anxiety inducing because of the delayed final results due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is the first time, nationwide, that this much voting has been done by mail or through early voting,” Bowles said. “If we weren’t in the middle of a pandemic, then the situation would be different. We might have gotten to a conclusion a lot faster. Given the situation we’re in, you know, you just have to be patient with the process.”
Political science sophomore Daryella Gutierrez, a first-time voter, said she has also been “keeping up religiously” with the election since Tuesday.
“At first, I was very impatient … but then as the results began coming in, all of the Red states that came in did make me a little bit nervous,” Gutierrez said. “But then, when Michigan and Wisconsin came in, I was more relieved.”
Bowles said the increase in the number of people exercising their right to vote amid a global pandemic is what has stood out to him most throughout the election process.
“The will of the people to make their voices heard despite whatever else may be going on has really impressed me,” he said. “The turnout has been tremendous, not just from people who support Democrats but also people who support Republicans. Everybody, I think, understands pretty clearly that this is a democracy and decisions are still made by the people as to who their elected officials are. Whether that continues to be the case in the future, is going to, frankly, depend on the results of the election.”
Bowles said he believes Democrat Joe Biden will win the election.
“It’s going to be tight. It’s going to be close,” he said. “But looking at the votes that remain and looking at how the votes that have been cast have been spread out, it’s looking pretty good for Biden. I’ll put it this way, it’s a lot harder for Trump to reach the 270 [electoral votes] than it is for Biden.”
Gutierrez said if Trump is reelected, the country will continue experiencing unrest and turmoil in social justice issues.
“More acts of, I want to say, terrorism because that’s what they are, they’re acts of terrorism,” she said. “That’s when the conversation, again, is going to come about white privilege and other serious topics that have yet to become settled under the Trump administration.”
If Biden wins, Gutierrez said she believes many liberals and progressives will make an effort to keep the calm within the country, but that it will not stop acts of violence from happening after a winner is chosen.
“Acts of terrorism are going to happen no matter what after this election, and I think that’s very inevitable,” she said. “I think we’re going to see something very drastic. I hope it makes both sides look at it and see that we need to tone it down. We really need to talk to each other because killing each other is definitely not the answer.”
During this year’s election, Biden won the majority of votes across the Rio Grande Valley. However, Trump received more support in numbers than he previously did during the 2016 presidential election.
Bowles said a couple of possible reasons for the increase could be the Mexican American community leaning toward conservative beliefs and business-focused individuals opposed to higher taxes.
The record-breaking voter turnout in this year’s election is something Bowles said he believes will continue being a trend in the future.
“I think that what’s going to happen, especially if the Senate remains under Republican control, is that there is going to be continued activism … and people are going to want to show up. Even if the Senate were to go to the Democrats, there’s still another fight to be had and that is between progressives and liberals on the left. … I think we started a trend that is not going to be reversed.”
