By Giya Khurana
Correspondent
The 2024 presidential election is less than a week away and the stakes are high. Many Americans either fully know who they are voting for or are unsure. Some things many people feel are anxiety and fear.
Psychology professor Jeanin Vivona said that people have anxiety about elections due to feeling discomfort with the unknown outcome. The belief of having a lack of control makes people feel limited in what they can do.
Vivona referred to a Michelle Obama quote: “Do something.” She believes doing absolutely anything at all is the best way to combat anxiety.
This is a more “psychologically healthy way, using that anxiety to feel like you are doing something,” Vivona said.
Vivona said she feels “apprehensive” about this election because she is uncertain of the outcome. She lives in Pennsylvania, a swing state, where either candidate could win. However, she says everyone's vote matters greatly regardless of where they live.
Vivona encourages people to get involved by simply voting and learning. She has even gone out canvassing and working at polling stations for many elections. Vivona said that instead of ignoring anxiety, people should use it as motivation.
“All of us can do something. We can vote, get involved in campaigning,” Vivona said."It's your future.”
Aidin Nikezi, a freshman film & television major at DePaul University in Chicago, is a first-time voter who got an absentee ballot from his home state of New Jersey sent to him in Illinois. Nikezi said that it was decently easy to vote out of state.
Nikezi has anxiety about this election with so much pressure surrounding what the result could be. He feels there is nothing much he can do besides voting, he said.
Policies can cause anxiety, too. He said the outcome of this election will affect various constitutional rights like civil rights and even the justice system. “I think this election will save or destroy a lot of those,” Nikezi said.
Although Nikezi said his anxiety is pushing him to vote to an extent, he mainly feels like it is his duty to vote.
On his Instagram stories, Nikezi has been trying to remind people to vote by reposting clips from “The Daily Show.”
“Everything is so digitized nowadays people forget that voting is done physically,” he said.
With the clips he shares, Nikezi feels he is at least trying to remind people to go vote for what matters.
Other than stress, fear is a major part of this election. Everything politicians do is strategic, but also can be seen as unpredictable to regular voters.
A study conducted by Talker Research for Forbes Health reported that 60% of people asked say this election is having an effect on their mental health. The emotions felt most strongly by respondents were anxiety, stress, and fear. However, there was a small percentage of respondents that felt optimism, too.
Political Science professor Cadence Willse said that in recent political history, the way candidates speak has been quite different from other elections. Various people, mainly on Trump’s campaign during the 2020 election and current election, have used politically violent language, she said.
She also said that the fear surrounding the elections could turn away voters due to how they view the government, but also bring in voters wanting change in that aspect.
“On the first day of early voting there was a record number of ballots cast,” Willse said.
This is something being seen in swing states like Georgia and North Carolina. Voter turnout is something we will have to wait for but “we’ll find out soon,” she said.
Chase Willson, a freshman civil engineer major said, “stress over politics is unhealthy.” Willson plans on voting and said he will take the results as they come. He does, however, fear Project 2025, the right-wing book of policies some Republicans want to implement in the government if Trump wins.
Willson said that he does not think voting is his duty but more of a privilege. “I respect those who had to fight for the right for Black U.S. citizens to vote,” he said.
