Local concerns and national issues drive voters

Tuesday night was a his­toric midterm elec­tion, with Democrats retak­ing con­trol of both the U.S. House and Senate after two years of Republican con­trol of the leg­isla­tive and exec­u­tive branch­es of nation­al government. 

But that wasn’t what mat­tered most for Julie Briscoe, who vot­ed at the Generations Center. She was more con­cerned about the part of gov­ern­ment that is clos­est to the people. 

“The local races are pret­ty impor­tant. That’s most­ly what brought me out — the local races and mak­ing sure we have the right peo­ple. Not just peo­ple that want to be in to be in, but that actu­al­ly want to make a dif­fer­ence,” she said. 

But for Lanny Griffith, who vot­ed at the same loca­tion, nation­al issues were also important. 

“The cor­rup­tion that’s going on. And prices. Food, gas, all of that,” he said when asked what issues were on his mind as he went to the polls. 

Asked whether he con­sid­ered it an impor­tant elec­tion, Griffith answered: “Ah, this is it. If we don’t sur­vive this one, we’re done.” 

Poll work­ers across Clark County said the num­ber of vot­ers was unusu­al­ly high for a midterm. 

“Actually, that was the 100^th vot­er,” Kaitlin Haggard said as she checked someone’s iden­ti­fi­ca­tion at the Victory precinct around noon. 

At Robert D. Campbell Junior High School, one of the biggest polling places, with mul­ti­ple precincts, JoAnna Hall said she was inter­est­ed in the U.S. Senate race. 

“That’s a big one for me,” she said. “That seat has been in the same hands for a long time.” 

The cur­rent United States sen­a­tor, Republican Mitch McConnell, has held the seat for more than four decades. On Tuesday, Republican Congressman Andy Barr kept it in the red col­umn by win­ning it in a land­slide over Democrat Charles Booker. Clark County’s vote reflect­ed that of the state overall. 

Paul Green, who wore his Vietnam veteran’s cap to the polls, said his vote was a repu­di­a­tion of the president. 

“If we can get Trump out of there, that will be good,” he said. 

Jeff Lawrence, a con­ser­v­a­tive vot­er, was more con­cerned with local issues. 

“Fix the damn roads and fin­ish the bypass,” he said. 

Lawrence, who is retired from the mil­i­tary, said he has lived in oth­er coun­tries and wasn’t all that con­cerned about afford­abil­i­ty. Gas prices aren’t high here com­pared to Europe, and they’re com­ing down, he said. 

But he was con­cerned about a lack of afford­able hous­ing. He said his daugh­ter and her two sons live with him because she couldn’t afford $1,700 a month for rent where she was staying. 

“I don’t want to be one-sided because I also want peo­ple who need help to get it,” he said. 

One thing Lawrence wants to see after this elec­tion is a return to civ­il discourse. 

“Society needs to start talk­ing to each oth­er again,” he said. “I don’t care if you’re left or right, they’re your fel­low Americans.” 

Katie Brashear Jones, who was on the bal­lot as a write-in can­di­date for the school board, came to RDC with her moth­er and her 21-year-old daugh­ter, Jordan Hall, who was vot­ing for the first time. 

“We were all able to vote togeth­er,” she said. “Three gen­er­a­tions of ladies vot­ing, and that was very cool for me.” 

Jones said her daugh­ter was excit­ed, and prob­a­bly “a lit­tle overwhelmed.” 

She said she got to have a con­ver­sa­tion with her daugh­ter about “why it is so important.” 

“Honestly, from the time that I was 18 on, I’ve nev­er missed a vote,” she said. “We have a lot of mil­i­tary in my fam­i­ly, so I feel like I real­ly under­stand the impor­tance of what peo­ple did, what they sac­ri­ficed for us to be able to vote, so it’s a real­ly big deal.”