“This is my first year. I’m 20, so it was exciting,” said voter Brianna Decapua.
While it’s not the election she imagined for her first vote, Decapua said it’s kept her watching every moment she can.
“I check my phone constantly. I was watching it all last night. I’m live streaming it whenever I can,” said Decapua.
Meanwhile, other voters are taking a different approach and taking a step back.
“If nothing is happening, I want to wait until we have some results,” said voter Gia Chiarillo.
With so much going on from moment to moment, it can be difficult to keep up.
Dr. Gary Rose, professor and chair of the Department of Government for Sacred Heart University, said voters should recognize this process could continue for the next several weeks, calling it troubling that litigation has already started.
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“When people litigate then it’s up to the courts to make ruling and this election could, once again, fall into the hands of judges, and that, to me, is unfortunate,” said Rose.
Rose said calls for halting the counting of votes is very unusual, and when it comes to recounts, this is very different compared to what happened in 2000 with recount disputes in Florida.
“If we’re talking about recounts, that’s the parallel. But that’s where it ends. Because this time we’re talking about potential recounts in several states,” said Rose.
Experts say accusations of a lack of legitimacy to the election is disturbing because an election is supposed to be an affirmation of the democratic system.
“Whether you like the candidate or not, the American people are supposed to accept the outcome of an election. And when millions of people don’t, it shows that they’ve lost faith and trust in our system of governing ourselves as free people, so that, to me, is very troubling,” said Rose.
Rose said there’s so much division in the country that whoever becomes president needs to make bridging that divide a top priority.
