Tuesday, Nov. 5 is the last opportunity to cast a vote in the election that will decide local races such as school board members, county elections supervisors, and district judges, as well as state representatives, constitutional amendments and — of course — the next president of the United States.
The last year has been fraught with fear and anxiety on all sides of the political spectrum. Carlos Curbelo, a former Republican congressman from South Florida, and Stephanie Murphy, a former Democratic congresswoman from Orlando, discussed those concerns with Tom Hudson on The Florida Roundup.
Fear and anxiety over who wins
Curbelo said there are multiple reasons why tension has been threaded throughout this election season.
“I think this is the first election in a while where there isn't a consensus expectation for who's going to win. We look back at 2020, there was some polling consensus indicating that President Biden was likely to win. In 2016, it was expected that Hillary Clinton would win. Now that didn't end up happening, but prior to the election, people were fairly confident about that outcome.”
“So this is the first election in a while, maybe since 2000, where we really don't know what's going to happen. The other reason why there's so much anxiety is because politics has become too important in people's lives. It's become almost a matter of life and death.”
Political polls have been all over the place, and as polling experts have explained, are less about actually predicting outcomes and more about capturing snapshots of public opinion during particular times.
Trusting the election process
Murphy said one of the reasons why it's easy to sow misinformation is that each state counts their ballots and reports results differently.
“And so it's easy for somebody in one state to look to another and say, ‘Hey, that doesn't look right. Is that fair? Or is somebody cheating?’ " Murphy said. "When, in reality, that's just the way that that state conducts their elections. So I think it's important to be patient with the process.”
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She said the other piece missing in politics today is trust in the system.
“There’s a system in place where, if the race is close, candidates have the opportunity to ask for a recount," Murphy said. "There's a process through the judicial system. If somebody thinks that there was foul play, they can appeal it to the courts, and the courts can decide. But once all of those avenues are pursued and they have come to close, then I think we as Americans have to accept the outcome, whether or not our candidate won.”
Social media has also been rife with accusations of voter fraud, some of which is said to have been stoked by some lawmakers and former President Donald Trump. In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis has accused abortion-rights activists of forging the signatures of dead people, or of people who didn’t support abortion, on petitions to get Amendment 4 on the November ballot.
“We've already seen a number of examples in this election of different agents and people on social media trying to spread lies about ballot tampering or manipulation. That's all been disproven,” Curbelo said.
The claims have real-world consequences. Hundreds of ballots were destroyed or damaged in fires set last week at ballot drop boxes in Oregon, Washington, and Arizona.
A Florida man was also arrested and charged with a felony after police say he threatened two Kamala Harris supporters with a machete as they campaigned outside a Florida early voting site.
Curbelo also said what helps feed trust is accepting people as they are, and not demonizing each other for differing political views.
What can I do aside from vote?
“Obviously, the most important thing that we can do in a democracy is vote, and there are other outlets for citizens to share their views,” Curbelo said, pointing to call-ins from listeners on "The Florida Roundup’s" live show.
“Obviously, there's social media. You can talk to your friends and neighbors, so we're not impotent in the face of candidates or individuals who we either perceive as dangerous or threat to democracy.”
A ’symptom of a sick society’
Curbelo said if someone feels legitimately threatened during a political discussion or interaction with someone, they should call local authorities. But barring safety concerns, he said people need to learn to be less polarizing in how they view people with differing political views.
“We have become a more violent society. People don't view one another as adversaries or as having different views," Curbelo said. "They view one another as being good or bad according to their political positions. And that is just very, very unhealthy. It is a symptom of a sick society.”
Responding to a caller who compared Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler, Culbero cautioned voters about how they criticize political opponents.
“To say Donald Trump has attacked our democratic institutions is accurate, and there's a long record to reflect that. To compare him to Adolf Hitler, I think, goes way too far and is counterproductive and does damage to our national discourse,” Curbelo said.
Moving forward together
Curbelo and Murphy now both work for Center Aisle Coalition, an organization that purports to be a “beacon of hope and unity” in a “era of hyperpartisanship.”
“It’s very clear that the country is divided, and that's why we take our work with the Center Aisle Coalition so seriously, because we need to heal. We need to bridge this divide, and if that's going to happen, we need civil society that has organizations and groups that is prepared and empowered to do that,” Curbelo said.
Murphy pointed out that regardless of who wins the vote for president, and who gets voted in at the state, county, and city levels, we all have to live with one another.
“What you can say on the other side of this election is that, no matter who wins, the relationship that you have with these people is still at that human-to-human relationship, friend-to-friend, American-to-American … and that we're going to move forward together, because there really isn't another choice for us,” Murphy said.
This story was compiled off an interview conducted by Tom Hudson for The Florida Roundup.
