Rainy weather doesn't deter Minnesota voters
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The rainy start to Election Day didn’t deter voters like Liz Schneider-Bateman of St. Paul. She cast her ballot at the Jimmy Lee Recreational Center in the city’s Rondo neighborhood despite the gloomy weather.
She said she was hopeful for the results, but has been let down in the past.
“It’s scary to be hopeful because I feel like we’ve been so devastated and disappointed several times in the last decade,” Schneider-Bateman said. “Today feels like another moment of putting those hopes out there and seeing what happens.”
Karla Bravo, 23, of St. Paul, said the past year surrounding immigration made her want to vote.
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“As somebody who came from a Hispanic family and going to Lake Street and having breakfast on a Sunday and seeing it hustling and bustling — we used to have to fight over tables to eat,” Bravo said. “This past year seeing it empty was so heartbreaking, because we’ve always been a community that’s there.”
Amanda Swanson, a public school teacher in Detroit Lakes, said one local issue motivated her to get to Grace Lutheran Church to cast a ballot: Detroit Lakes Public Schools banning rainbow flags and signs.
“I just wanted to make my voice heard on something I feel the school board currently may be in the wrong for,” Swanson said. “We’re hoping we can get people in who can do the right thing.”
The same issue drove siblings Aiden and Megan Lunde, both 21 and Detroit Lakes High School graduates, to the same polling place. Both said they were opposed to allowing rainbow paraphernalia in schools.
“We have younger siblings that will be going there eventually,” Aiden Lunde said. “We don’t want that for them.”
“School is just meant for education,” Megan Lunde added. “We don’t need that kind of stuff in a school setting.”
Back in St. Paul, Sarah Hobbie biked through the rain to vote at Church of the Holy Childhood in Como Park. She said she was hoping for a Democratic landslide to send a message to Washington about Republican President Donald Trump.
“He’s not doing anything for the common person,” Hobbie said. “He’s just basically passing laws and implementing policies that are benefitting the ultra-rich. He’s enriching his family. He’s doing all sorts of things that are illegal.”
Jack Baartman, 37, said he normally votes Libertarian, but Trump also had him rooting — and voting — for Democrats.
“He's expanded so many programs and increased the debt to $40 trillion,” Baartman said. “I just hope there can be some roadblocks to that.”
