Supporters anxiously await results
At the start of the Blair County Democratic Committee's election watch party Tuesday in Duncansville, Chairwoman Gillian Kratzer was hugging an aqua-colored "Squashmallow" — a stuffed animal popular among people with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, with which she was diagnosed this year.
Kratzer brought the object of comfort to the event at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union hall to help with anxiety she feels around every election, especially following the long hours of focus required for the "get-out-the-vote" weekend just preceding election day — an experience that leaves her frazzled.
"It helps me sort of center myself," she said, adding that she was feeling "uncharacteristically positive" about the outcome in an election that the polls have predicted for months would be extraordinarily close.
A couple hours later, when there were indications that critical swing states were drifting toward Trump, Kratzer professed to be undeterred.
She cited one of the networks predicting that Democratic candidate Kamala Harris would need 52% of the popular vote to win in the Electoral College, and that she was projected to win 55%.
"It's going to be a long night," she said. "Everybody needs to chill out."
"I'm very hopeful," said Carol Taylor, former Blair County commissioner and state senator candidate, one of about 30 attendees at the watch party. "Of course I'm nervous."
She didn't expect a winner to be declared until at least today.
"A lot of people are losing sleep over this," Taylor said. "I just go home and hug my dogs."
And things would be bad if Harris doesn't win, according to Taylor.
"I'm very concerned about a lot of things Trump has said regarding our democratic process," she said, noting "his lack of respect for the rule of law and the institutions that have built our country."
She cited the tariffs he plans to enact, his intention to "derail health care" and the Project 2025 that conservative allies have drawn up as a blueprint for his administration.
"I don't think we can afford four more years of Donald Trump," she said. "It would be disastrous for the economy and for climate change."
Mike Gerchak and his son, Cael, 15, of Duncansville, came to the watch party because they didn't want to be home by themselves, obsessively refreshing their phones to get the latest results.
"We want to be around people who are invested in this election as much as we are," Mike Gerchak said.
They're worried about the outcome, mainly about what will happen to individual rights, about the possibility of abortion being taken off the table and about animosity toward people in the LGBT community, Mike Gerchak said, taking a deep breath — but getting a couple of the letters wrong, according to his son.
"Also a backlash against common decency," Mike Gerchak said, citing Trump making fun of a disabled person and encouraging rally attendees to call Nancy Pelosi "the b word."
He remembered when a president was someone you should look up to, not someone whom you wouldn't want your children to emulate, he said.
He hasn't yet witnessed an election having taken place in "a healthy environment," Cael said.
He finds the current environment "scary."
That is manifested in Hollidaysburg Area High School, where Trump supporters tend to be more vocal than those who favor Harris, wearing shirts and hats that express their preference, Cael said.
The way they express that preference is not exactly bullying, but rather teasing those who don't fit in, he said.
They seem to be emulating Trump, Mike Gerchak suggested, and Cael agreed.
He's not a target himself, but others are, he said, especially LGBTQ+ people and non-white people, people he knows and cares about.
The Gerchaks have canvassed together for a total of 35 hours, knocking on doors.
They've encountered Republicans who are voting for Trump reluctantly, including one woman who was crying about having to do that.
"I wanted to show her my compassion," he said. "We are (all) people."
Kratzer's unpaid intern Lisette Green was at the watch party, tracking the results on a laptop.
"I'm her right-hand man," she said, listing her many duties.
A communications and political science major from Summit, N.J., in her junior year at Penn State Altoona, Green has high ambitions.
Plan A is to establish a political consulting firm in Washington, D.C., that specializes in managing crises. That would make her someone who is "behind the scenes pulling the strings" for public-
facing politicians.
Plan B is to run for office herself — an office like U.S. Senator, she said.
Green, too, was worried about the outcome of the presidential election, especially about the "transfer of power."
Whoever wins, the nation needs to accept it, she said.
"At the end of the day, it's all about democracy," she said.
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.
