Written By: Mansi Desai
Edited By: Marvin Kimwon
This past Tuesday, voters across America gathered at various polling locations to take part in our first election post-pandemic. After the turbulent events of the last election, many Americans are hoping that this election does not have the same consequences. After all, our last election ended with the losing party claiming election fraud and practically encouraging disappointed Americans to disrupt our democracy by storming the Capitol. The integrity of our democracy was on the line. We cannot let that happen again.
While the midterm elections encouraged many voters to vote at the polls, a fair share of voters voted by mail-in ballot. Leading up to the election, many Republican states like Florida applied even stricter restrictions for mail-in ballots and absentee ballots. According to The Washington Post, some of these restrictions include only being able to deliver ballots for close relatives, only being allowed to submit up to two mail-in ballots, and having to fill out various forms if you are delivering ballots for someone else. It has been reported that people have been arrested for making the smallest mistakes on the form, disproportionately Black individuals. Many Black voters in Florida expressed fear over DeSantis’ new election laws and now that he’s practically won re-election, that fear has only intensified. Leading up to the election, there was also a lot of chatter around the definite flipping of the House and Senate from blue to red. While many votes are still left to be counted, it looks like Republicans are inching closer to their House majority while the fate of the Senate remains in the hands of Arizona, Georgia, and Nevada voters.
Like any other election, this election holds tremendous weight in terms of the issues either side is pushing for. After the Supreme Court made the heart wrenching decision to overturn
Roe v. Wade in June, Democrats have centered their campaign around protecting abortion and reproductive health rights for all women. Similarly, the rise in gas prices nationwide has allowed Republicans to put the issue of inflation at the forefront of their campaign. In this way, we continue to see how Democrats are prioritizing social and humanitarian issues while Republicans focus on economic issues for this election.
In five states, abortion rights won big time. Voters in California, Michigan, and Vermont approved measures that would protect abortion rights in their state constitutions while voters in Kentucky and Montana rejected measures that would violate abortion rights in various forms. This was a huge win for women in the states that approved such measures because it guaranteed them the right to abortion protections despite who is in office. It was just as big of a win for women in states that rejected measures that would violate a women’s right to have an abortion because it reignited the hope that they would be able to make that decision for themselves sometime down along the line. As a woman myself, I know it is very important for me to be able to have full control over what I do to my body. For many women nationwide, it is crucial that they have the ability to make their own decision in regards to carrying a baby to term based on their own physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, and economic conditions.
As we wait to hear more about the outcome of this election, Americans should watch very closely as the results of this election begin coming out. Will the House flip? Will the Senate flip? Will they both flip? I’m not sure. We will have to wait and see how this election unfolds and what kind of impact it has moving forward these next two years, leading up to the 2024 Presidential election.
[The views expressed in this article are those of the author and the author alone; they do not necessarily represent the views of all members of the RULR Editorial Board and Rutgers University]
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