Frustrated voters lament choices at the top of the ballot
Brad Karcher compared casting his vote Friday in the presidential election to surviving a plane crash.
“You’ve got two people you can choose to fly it: an experienced plane thief or someone with no flying experience,” the 37-year-old said. “It’s pretty obvious who you’re going to choose.”
Karcher voted for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton with — as evidenced by his hypothetical comparison — some reluctance.
So it goes in the country’s latest bout at selecting the leader of the free world. For many, this election seems about which presidential candidate is somehow tolerable after months of angry rhetoric and claims of doom and destruction should the other side claim the White House.
“The overall race is a race to the bottom,” Karcher said. “It seems to have hit new lows.”
Donald Trump supporter Donna Petty agrees. The 50-year-old Centennial Hills resident turned off her TV last week and has kept it that way.
Petty said she doesn’t need to tune in to any more news programs to decide for whom she’s voting. She’s made up her mind, and even if she hadn’t, the candidates are only frustrating her at this point.
“They’re not focused on the issues; they’re focused on each other’s shortcomings,” she vented Friday outside an early voting location. “What’s your message to change things? That’s what I want to hear.”
Paige Barris, a 20-year old college student and first-time voter, said she can’t stomach much more of this election.
“I think it’s stupid Trump’s allowed to run after everything he’s done,” she said. “The recordings of what he’s said, how he treats women. It’s like our nation is going to the dumps.”
Still, Barris admitted that her vote for Clinton felt like picking the lesser of two evils.
“To be honest, I think we should have taken a break and not had a (presidential election) this year,” she said. “I didn’t want to vote for either one.”
Retired Air Force veteran and Republican Michael Sowers said he has seen too much drama from both major parties during the 2016 election.
“It shouldn’t be about fighting each other. We should meet together and discuss things, then vote and let the best person win,” the 59-year-old said with exasperation. “The rest of the world looks at us like, ‘what are these morons doing?’”
Contact Michael Scott Davidson at sdavidson@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861. Follow @davidsonlvrj on Twitter.