Although Election Day itself has passed, some of the results for state elections and the presidential election have not been finalized. Many students voted this year as part of the nationwide record voter turnout, and many of them are monitoring different websites and watching the numbers roll in.
Senior Jason Apple, chairman for College Republicans at IU, said he is content with how the election has panned out in Indiana and there are no big surprises.
He said he was proud of Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb’s reelection, Todd Rokita’s election as Indiana attorney general and the U.S. House of Representatives elections in Indiana.
“At the state level, I’m very happy with how everyone’s performing,” he said.
Apple said he is disappointed with the election results at the local level.
“But I am very proud of our candidates and the races they put in,” he said. “They did a great job.”
There are still too many unknown variables in the presidential election to know who will win, Apple said. He said he would prefer if the election wasn’t as close as it is turning out to be and would have liked if the election results were decided by now, but he understands logistically it takes time to count all the votes.
“I appreciate all the volunteers helping out in these races across the country,” he said.
Apple said he hopes everyone will stay calm and civil as the country waits for results.
“I personally anticipate there being some legal battles pertaining to the presidential election,” he said.
Apple said he is confident Republicans will maintain control of the U.S. Senate. He said he thinks if former Vice President Joe Biden wins the presidential election he will have trouble passing legislation.
Apple said if Biden wins and Republicans are unable to maintain control in the Senate, he is worried about support for police officers nationally, court packing and changing the Electoral College.
Junior Alessia Modjarrad, president of College Democrats at IU, said she is not surprised national results are not official yet because a large amount of mail-in ballots take time to count.
Modjarrad said she believes a lot of Democrats thought Biden would win by a landslide, but it looks as if the election will come down to one or two states.
She said she is disappointed with the results in Indiana, such as Democrat Dr. Woody Myers losing the gubernatorial election, Democrats losing seats in the Indiana Statehouse and Democrat Christina Hale losing Indiana’s 5th Congressional District.
“I am kind of disappointed in the American electorate today,” she said.
Modjarrad said she thought the race between Biden and Trump would be closer in Indiana.
“I genuinely thought that people had kind of woken up to the whole 'Trump is a facist thing', but maybe not,” she said.
Modjarrad said she thought races nationally and locally would go well for Democrats based on polls and the increase in people voting for the first time.
“While I didn’t think that we would necessarily blow it out of the water, I did think that we would get closer,” she said. “But we didn’t because of a lot of reasons, and one of those is voter suppression.”
Modjarrad said she is concerned about Trump attempting to contest the results of the election by trying to stop votes from being counted and filing lawsuits. She said she thinks the amount of federal judges and three Supreme Court justices Trump has nominated is not going to help.
“If it were to go to the court, I don’t necessarily have faith in our Supreme Court to actually uphold democratic ideals right now or the ideals of democracy where we count every vote,” she said.
Modjarrad said she is disappointed in white men and women in this election. She said she believes if Trump wins reelection, it will be as a result of white Americans.
“White people are preserving what they have — their privilege — in this country and they’re prioritizing that over the lives of literally everyone else,” she said.
Junior Cassidy McCammon, a student member of the Political and Civic Engagement program, said she feels a lot of uncertainty around the election because the winner wasn’t announced Tuesday night. However, she said she knows the race hasn’t been called because each state is taking the time to count each vote.
“I would much rather sit in this place of uncertainty for longer to get an accurate result,” she said.
Junior Kylie Lewis, who said she voted for Biden, said she was sad because she thought Biden would have been called as the winner last night but is hopeful because Biden is leading in many battleground states.
“Right now, I’m feeling a very fun mixture of anxiety and hope,” Lewis said.
Lewis said she thinks if the final results are drawn out because of recounts or Supreme Court cases, some people may lose confidence in the voting system or the candidate who won.
“It will reflect poorly on the winner, I think,” she said.
Freshman Anne Getz said Trump's call for a recount in Wisconsin makes sense because the difference in the vote is within the parameters of a recount, but she is bothered by the way Trump claims there is widespread voter fraud.
Getz also said she wanted to keep from making predictions about the election because so many states are so close and a lot of factors are up in the air.
“At the end of the day, your personal predictions aren’t going to change the outcome of the election,” Getz said.
Junior Jada Edson said she was surprised to see the presidential race was close between Trump and Biden because many of her friends and the people she interacts with are voting for Biden.
“We thought it was going to be him winning by a landslide, but since everything is so close we’re kind of disappointed,” Edson said.
